Khamenei says Assad's downfall is the result of a "US-Israeli plan"

Iran's Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei on Wednesday blamed the United States and Israel for the fall of ousted Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, an ally of Tehran that was part of the so-called Axis of Resistance.

"There is no doubt that what has happened in Syria is the product of a joint American-Zionist (Israeli) plan," said Iran's top political and religious authority in his first speech since Assad fled the Arab country.

Khamenei said Washington and Jerusalem were the “main conspirators” in the overthrow of the Syrian president, of which he claimed to have evidence.

“We have proof of this. This evidence leaves no room for doubt,” he said in his speech to “thousands of people” from different walks of life in Iran at the Imam Khomeini mosque.

The cleric also said that a "country neighbouring Syria has played an obvious role" in the overthrow of the Syrian president, in an apparent veiled reference to Turkey, which supports some of the militias involved in the rapid rebel offensive.

Iran was one of Assad's main allies, supporting him militarily and economically over the years and having so-called military "advisers" on Syrian soil.

The Arab country was part of the so-called Axis of Resistance, the informal anti-Israel alliance led by Iran and made up of a variety of terrorist organizations such as the Palestinian Hamas, the Lebanese Hezbollah, the Houthis of Yemen and a myriad of militias in Iraq.

Syria was the only state that was part of this alliance and played an important role because it offered Iran direct access and a channel for sending weapons to Hezbollah.

Iranian authorities have acknowledged that the fall of Assad, who fled to Moscow, is a blow to the Axis of Resistance, whose members have attacked Israel since the start of the war in Gaza in October 2023.

Following the capture of the capital by the coalition led by the Islamist Levant Liberation Organization (HTS, in Arabic), the Iranian embassy in Damascus was ransacked on Sunday, although it had already been evacuated. Aurora and EFE