Iran Declares Assad Must Stay Amid Mounting Evidence That He Is Working with ISIS

An advisor to Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said that the removal of Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad was a “red line” that Iran would not cross, Reuters reported on Sunday.

“Bashar al-Assad is the Islamic Republic of Iran’s red line because he was elected president by the Syrian people,” said Ali Akbar Velayati, the top foreign policy advisor to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

“The Syrian people must decide their own fate, and nobody outside Syria’s borders can choose for the Syrian people,” he added.

Various analysts have cited Iran’s backing of Assad, and the Syrian dictator’s tacit support of ISIS, as some of the main factors behind the ascendance of the terror group. Assad’s failure to step down from power is likely to further entrench ISIS and exacerbate sectarian violence in Syria and the region.

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Last week, while evaluating U.S. interests and strategy in Syria, Tony Badran of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies observed that ISIS is “allied militarily and economically with Assad against other rebel groups.”

Last month, Reuel Marc Gerecht and Ray Takeyh wrote in Foreign Affairs that Iran has not attempted to roll back ISIS’s territorial gains, and observed that sectarian violence in Syria and Iraq allowed Tehran to achieve “more influence than at any time since the 1979 revolution.” By being seen as an indispensable partner in the fight against terrorism, they argued, Iran’s “cynical strategy…will likely do just enough to make sure the Sunnis don’t conquer the Shia portions of Iraq and Assad’s enclave in Syria, but no more. Meanwhile, in ISIS’ wake, Tehran will strengthen its own radical Shia militias.”

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