Iran says Syria’s future unclear after foreign minister hits back 

Iran’s top diplomat has said it is too soon to judge Syria’s future as many developments could affect it after his counterpart in the fledgling Syrian government heavily criticised Tehran.

“I think it is currently too soon to judge, both for us and for those others who think victories were won in Syria,” Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said with a smile in a short clip of an interview released on his Telegram channel on Wednesday.

The comments came after Syria’s new Foreign Minister Asaad Hassan al-Shibani told Iran it must respect the will of the Syrian people and the country’s sovereignty and security.

“We warn them against spreading chaos in Syria and we hold them responsible for the repercussions of the latest remarks,” he said, but did not specify the remarks he was referring to.

Araghchi has led Iran’s diplomatic response in the aftermath of the fall of longtime Tehran ally Bashar al-Assad, which has consisted of expressing a willingness to maintain bilateral relations while caveating that that would heavily depend on the country’s position concerning Israel.

But Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who has described the events in Syria as a ploy by the United States and Israel – with agency by neighbouring Turkiye – has employed stronger language.

“The Syrian youth have nothing to lose. Their universities, schools, homes and lives are not safe,” he said in a speech earlier this week.

“What can they do? They must stand with firm determination against those who have orchestrated and brought about this insecurity and God willing, they will prevail over them.”

The Iranian leader also said the US design to “dominate” countries consists of either establishing a regime with which they can work or “chaos and riots”. Syria’s events, Khamenei said, led to the latter.

Iran spent tens of billions of dollars, mostly during the decade-long Syrian civil war, to keep the al-Assad government in place with assistance from Russia. The Iran-led “axis of resistance” has lost one of its members and a crucial ground supply route to Hezbollah through Syria with the fall of the al-Assad dynasty.

Khamenei said Iran was partly repaying Syria since Hafez al-Assad, the deposed president’s father, assisted Iran when it was being invaded by neighbouring Iraq in the 1980s by cutting off a crucial Iraqi oil pipeline.

Iran and the region also made significant gains by fighting in Syria to push back ISIL (ISIS) and other armed groups, the Iranian supreme leader emphasised.

Unconfirmed reports have suggested Syria may be planning to pursue billions in compensation from Iran in international courts.

Last week, Iran’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesman Esmail Baghaei told reporters that claims that Syria owes Iran $50bn are “exaggerated”, but added that any existing debts will be transferred to the new leadership of the country based on the principle of state succession.

In addition to its investments to support a presence in Syria, Iran also supplied crude oil to the al-Assad government. The oil export has now ceased, with the last oil tanker making a U-turn for Iran on the day of his overthrow.

The hardening stance against Tehran from the new Syrian government comes as Hayat Tahrir al-Sham leader Ahmed al-Sharaa, also referred to as Abu Mohammed al-Julani, and others have been meeting with top international officials – including from the US, European Union, Turkiye and Iran’s Arab neighbours – and reopening embassies.

Syria’s de facto leader on Tuesday reached an agreement with rebel factions to come together as one force under the country’s Defence Ministry. Prominent HTS commander Murhaf Abu Qasra was appointed as defence minister.

But the Kurdish-led and US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), which have been pushed back by Turkiye-backed forces from some of the northeastern parts of Syria, is not part of the deal.

Syria’s interim Prime Minister Mohammed al-Bashir said last week the ministry would be restructured using former rebel factions and officers who defected from al-Assad’s army.

Meanwhile, other elements of al-Assad’s forces are being pursued by the new governors of Syria, with al-Sharaa saying in a statement those who have killed or tortured Syrians in the past will not be spared.

An unnamed former al-Assad loyalist was reportedly killed in the al-Qadam neighbourhood of Damascus earlier this week.

Videos circulating online have been showing armed fighters pledging to fight Alawis, a Shia religious minority from which the al-Assad family hails which is primarily based in Latakia and Tartous on Syria’s coast.