White House: Assad's fall shows limits of Russian and Iranian influence
Photo: John Finer, US Deputy National Security Advisor (Getty Images)
The fall of Bashar al-Assad's regime in Syria shows that the positions of Russia and Iran are weakened. They were unable to help their ally, as stated by US Deputy National Security Advisor John Finer in an interview with CNN.
Finer noted that both Moscow and Iran were "caught off guard" by the events in Syria, and this was not just a mistake or coincidence.
"The Assad regime had effectively become a Russian-Iranian joint venture inside Syria, and both of those joint venture partners were no longer able to provide the support that the regime needed in order to survive, and that’s a big part of why it’s no longer in power," he added.
The US Deputy National Security Advisor pointed out that this was not Iran's first loss in the Middle East this year. Previously, both Hamas and Hezbollah had been "badly diminished," and Iran's attempts to strike Israel had not been successful.
"This is not a moment of strength for Iran, and what the implications are of that, I’ll let others speculate about but that is, frankly, the result of work by the United States and our partners over the course of the last year, that’s brought us to that moment," he clarified.
Finer also emphasized that the war in Ukraine had "shown what kind of a security partner Russia can be to other countries."
Fall of the regime in Syria
In Syria, rebels managed to overthrow Bashar al-Assad's regime in just over a week. They seized control of a large number of settlements and forced the dictator to flee the country.
As noted in a comment to the RBC-Ukraine YouTube channel by Israeli military analyst David Sharp, Syria may now experience collective rule or the rise of a new dictator. However, making predictions is difficult at this stage.
