Turkey’s flag hangs outside the Turkish Embassy in Damascus, Syria, on Dec. 14, 2024. Iranian officials say that in his final days in power, Syrian President Bashar al-Assad told Iran’s foreign minister that Turkey was helping rebel factions seeking to topple him.
VOICE OF AMERICA | Published December 15, 2024
DUBAI, UNITED ARAB EMIRATES —
In the final days leading to his ouster, Syrian President Bashar al-Assad complained to Iran’s foreign minister that Turkey was actively supporting Sunni rebels in their offensive to topple him, two Iranian officials told Reuters this week.
Five decades of rule by Assad’s family ended Sunday when he fled to Moscow, where the government granted him asylum. Iran had backed Assad in Syria’s long civil war, and his overthrow was widely seen as a major blow to the Iran-led “Axis of Resistance,” a political and military alliance that opposes Israeli and U.S. influence in the Middle East.
As rebel forces from Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, or HTS, formerly aligned to al-Qaida, seized major cities and advanced toward the capital, Assad met Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi in Damascus on December 2.
At the meeting, Assad voiced anger over what he said was Turkey’s intensified efforts to unseat him, according to a senior Iranian official. Araghchi assured Assad of Iran’s continued support and promised to raise the issue with Ankara, the official said.
The next day, Araghchi met with Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan to express Tehran’s deep concerns over Ankara’s support for rebel advances.
“The meeting was tense. Iran expressed its unhappiness with Turkey’s alignment with U.S. and Israeli agendas and conveyed Assad’s concerns,” a second Iranian official said, referring to Ankara’s support for rebels and cooperation with Western and Israeli interests in targeting Iran’s allies in the region.
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