Iranian forces defending Syrian President Bashar al-Assad have almost completely withdrawn from Syria, the CBS reported citing American officials.
The New York Times revealed in a report published on Saturday that the Iranian government began withdrawing its forces and field commanders from Syria since Friday evening.
It confirmed that internal memos issued by the Iranian Revolutionary Guards clarified “Iran’s acceptance of the reality and its cessation of resistance as a result of the strange and unreasonable situation.”
The newspaper said that “Iran, which had been making official promises to support Bashar al-Assad’s regime at the beginning of the week, especially through its Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi, changed its tone as the militants approached the Syrian capital, Damascus,” stressing that “Araqchi stated that Assad’s fate is now in God’s hands.”
It confirmed that, “The official media discourse in Iran has shifted from describing the Syrian opposition groups as ‘terrorists’ to ‘armed groups’, indicating a change in Tehran’s position on the situation and its move towards the post-Assad era.”
The New York Times also indicated that “three senior Iranian officials told it that the so-called Tahrir al-Sham Front sent a special diplomatic envoy to Tehran, who presented the armed organization’s pledges to the Iranian government to ‘preserve the shrine of Sayyida Zaynab in Syria and not to touch the sanctities,’” noting that “the discussions that took place between the two parties and the assurances provided by Tahrir al-Sham led to Iran’s decision to withdraw the remaining combat forces in Syria.”
