Iran Senses Defeat In Syria – OpEd

By Tariq Alhomayed

Now that Iran is beginning to sense defeat in Syria, it has begun to feel that the Arab Spring is nothing but a curse against it, after it previously viewed this as a “gift from God”. This is also what Hezbollah in Lebanon is sensing, as revealed by Hassan Nasrallah’s most recent speech.

Tehran, which previously hailed the Arab Spring in the region, viewing this as part of a grand Islamic awakening, has today begun to view its events as a conspiracy. Now it is sensing the impending end of its vital regional ally, Bashar Assad. This means that Syria, and indeed the region as a whole, will rid itself of what has been by far the worst Arab regime over the past four decades.

Iran and Hezbollah’s loss has become a genuine reality. Tehran has lost the popularity it previously enjoyed in the Arab region after its hypocrisy and false claims have been exposed. Tehran hailed the revolutions in Egypt and Tunisia and supported the popular movement in Bahrain but opposed the real revolution in Syria, despite all the suffering and killing that the Syrian people were exposed to at the hands of the tyrant Assad. The same applies to Hassan Nasrallah, who lost his senses and temper when he launched an attack on everybody in defense of Assad and those he described as “martyrs,” namely the members of Assad’s terror cell who were killed at the national security headquarters in Damascus by the Free Syrian Army.

Indeed, Nasrallah even attacked the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt — who he had previously praised — and went even further than this issuing a warning to the Palestinians, saying that their subjection to Arab regimes means the loss of the Palestinian cause. We do not know whether Nasrallah want the Palestinians to be subject to the Iranian regime, for example, or whether he was acknowledging, albeit unknowingly, that he is not an Arab, and is unconcerned with the Arab world!

All of this exposes the hypocrisy of Iran and Hezbollah, and all those who claim to be supporters of the “resistance,” not to mention all those who are spinning in its orbit, including those who support Arab decisions being subject to Iran. This hypocrisy has been exposed today in front of the Arab general public, particularly those who had previously been deceived by this and intimidated by warnings against Iranian influence and the so-called “resistance” axis.

However the Iranian camp has been exposed following Assad’s weakening grip on power, and this gives rise to the question: What future will Tehran and its agents face following the ouster of Assad? There can be no doubt that the regional scene will be completely different, and the main difference will be that Iran’s hand will have been cut off from the region for the first time in approximately four decades. This will represent a major blow to Iranian foreign policy, which is something that we stated approximately one year ago.

Iran will not only be weakened regionally, but also domestically as well, and the hard-line Tehran regime will find itself facing a singular truth, namely that it has lost the most important project it launched following the Khomeinist revolution, namely its control over Syria, and its transforming the country into a pro-Tehran intelligence headquarters whose sole mission was to carry out the worst operations in our region.

This is what Iran and its agents are sensing now, as the moment of the fall of the tyrant of Damascus fast approaches, and this is something that requires great Arab caution, across the entire region.

— The author is editor in chief of Asharq Al-Awsat.