White House believes fall of Assad regime in Syria indicates weakening of Russia and Iran – CNN

Jon Finer, Deputy National Security Advisor to the White House, believes that the fall of Bashar al-Assad's regime in Syria indicates the weakening of Russia and Iran.

Source: European Pravda, citing Finer in an interview with CNN

Details: Finer noted that Moscow and Tehran, the main pillars of the Assad regime, "were completely caught off guard by this [the fall of Assad's regime], but that wasn't just a mistake, and it wasn't just an accident".

"[The Assad regime – ed.] had effectively become a Russian-Iranian joint venture inside Syria, and both of those joint venture partners were no longer able to provide the support that the regime needed in order to survive, and that's a big part of why it's no longer in power," he added.

The White House official added that this is not Iran's first loss in the Middle East in recent months, recalling the Hamas and Hezbollah groups weakened by the war with Israel.

"This is not a moment of strength for Iran, and what the implications are of that I'll let others speculate about, but that is, frankly, the result of work by the United States and our partners over the course of the last year that brought us to that moment," said Finer.

On the other hand, the war in Ukraine has already "shown what kind of a security partner Russia can be to other countries," the advisor added.

Background: 

• On 8 December, rebels in Syria announced that they had taken control of the capital, Damascus, signalling the end of more than two decades of Assad's rule. Assad is believed to be in Moscow.
• Jake Sullivan, the White House National Security Adviser, noted that the United States will work to protect the US against the terrorist threat that could come from Syria after the sudden overthrow of the Bashar al-Assad regime in the country.

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