Stunned Iranian Officials Try to Distance Their Country From Assad

A reckoning emerged in Iran on Sunday as officials and commentators swiftly moved to distance the government from a tyrant it had supported.

By Farnaz Fassihi and Leily Nikounazar

Iranians watched in astonishment over the weekend as the reign of their nation’s longtime political and military ally, Bashar al-Assad, came to a crashing end. By Sunday, the reckoning had arrived as officials and pundits recognized that Iran was taken by surprise, and they hurried to distance Iran from a tyrant the country had supported in maintaining power.

Iranian leaders and military commanders said in public statements that it was up to Syrians to decide what kind of government should replace Mr. al-Assad, who resigned and fled Syria on Sunday after rebel forces stormed the country’s capital.

“It is the Syrian people who must decide on the future of their country and its political and governmental system,” said President Masoud Pezeshkian of Iran in a meeting with his cabinet on Sunday, according to state media outlets. He added that Syrians must be free to do so without violence and foreign meddling.

It was yet another remarkable turnabout for Iran after withdrawing its military forces on Friday when the collapse of Mr. al-Assad’s government became inevitable.

State television channels candidly discussed Iran’s policies, with officials and pundits admitting that Iran had misjudged the regional dynamics and officials had overlooked Mr. Assad’s unpopularity among Syrians, which also reflected Iran’s lack of support there.

Hatef Salehi, an analyst who supports Iran’s government, said in a live town hall discussion on the audio chat app Clubhouse that “the most important lesson of Syria for the Islamic Republic is that no government can last without the support of the people.”

Iran’s foreign minister, Abbas Araghchi, said on a live television interview that Iran had received intelligence suggesting that rebels in Syria’s Idlib Province were organizing an uprising in the north. He said Iran had relayed the report to Syria’s government and army, but still “nobody could believe” Mr. al-Assad’s collapse.

Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi of Iran, left, speaking along with Foreign Minister Fuad Hussein of Iraq, center, and Foreign Minister Bassam al-Sabbagh of Syria following a trilateral meeting in Baghdad on Sunday.Credit...Ahmad Al-Rubaye/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

“What caught us off guard was, one, the inability of Syria’s army to confront the movement and, second, the speed of developments,” Mr. Araghchi said.

Mr. Araghchi said that when he traveled last week to Syria, Mr. al-Assad had expressed concern to him and complained about the army’s unwillingness to fight back. Mr. Araghchi said his impression was that the Syrian president did not have an accurate read of the situation.

Mr. Araghchi confirmed that Iran and Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, the rebel group that led the offensive against Syria’s government, had exchanged diplomatic messages ahead of the fall of Damascus, Syria’s capital. He said Iran had requested protection for its embassy and Shiite religious shrines and that the rebels had agreed.

Still, a crowd of rebel supporters stormed Iran’s Embassy in Damascus shortly after the fall and ransacked the building, destroying furniture and documents, according to videos and photographs circulating in Iranian media.

They also climbed the entrance fence of the embassy and tore down huge posters of Hezbollah’s leader who was recently killed by Israel, Hassan Nasrallah, and Iran’s slain top general, Qassim Suleimani, who had commanded troops in Syria’s civil war in support of the Assad government.

Iran’s Foreign Ministry said all of its diplomatic staff were safe and no one was present when the building was vandalized.

Ordinary Iranians experienced a range of emotions as they watched jubilant Syrians flood the streets, tearing down symbols of Mr. Assad’s oppressive government.

“All I can think about is the fall of Iran’s dictatorship regime. Will this sweet moment finally arrive?” Behrouz, 33, an engineer from Iran, said in a telephone interview.

He and other Iranians The New York Times interviewed asked to be identified by only their first names for fear of reprisals.

Lili, a 40-year-old university professor, said her first emotion upon hearing the news of Mr. Assad’s fall was “a sense of escape, of being let go, of freedom. And then will I, will we, ever see this day?”

But supporters of Iran’s government lamented on social media and in live town hall discussions that the loss of Syria was yet another devastating blow to Iran’s network of militant allies in the region.

“The Berlin Wall of unity for the axis of resistance has collapsed. That’s it,” said Meysam Karim Jaffari, a conservative journalist and analyst affiliated with the Revolutionary Guards Corps, referring to Iran’s network of regional allies that included Hamas in Gaza, Hezbollah in Lebanon, the Syrian government, the Houthis of Yemen and armed groups in Syria and Iraq.

In just a few months, several top leaders of these militant groups were eliminated by Israeli assassinations or political upheaval. Analysts noted that these events signified a pivotal shift in the region’s history, particularly after Hamas’s attacks on Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, but in a direction that starkly contradicted Iran’s aspirations.

“The fall of Assad puts an exclamation point on the fact that decades of Iranian strategy and investment in the Levant have come undone in a matter of weeks,” said Ali Vaez, the Iran director for the International Crisis Group, a conflict resolution organization.

Farnaz Fassihi is the United Nations bureau chief for The Times, leading coverage of the organization, and also covers Iran and the shadow war between Iran and Israel. She is based in New York. More about Farnaz Fassihi