Artist: Ahmad Barakizadeh
By Kayhan Life Staff
Iran’s theocracy was set back considerably this week following the fall of Bashar Al-Assad’s regime in Syria, a once key ally in the Middle East who Iranian officials bolstered to secure their interests in the region. Over the course of a decade, Iran’s government invested an estimated $30 to $50 billion in Syria.
The regime’s overthrow was met with relief and joy by Syrians, and a cautious hope that the new government would usher in a better future for Syria and its people.
Assad’s departure is a further blow to Lebanese Hezbollah, an armed proxy group funded and supported by Iran and part of its axis of resistance, a movement designed by the theocracy to establish control over the region.
The calculated assault by Syrian rebels came just as a ceasefire agreement between Israel and Hezbollah was signed, with the armed proxy group heavily weakened and depleted by months of fighting. Iran was also stretched thin by the Israel-Hezbollah conflict and unable to assist Assad.
Assad’s fall now makes the theocracy’s supply route to Hezbollah deeply problematic, frustrating access to arms, Iranian fighters, and its trafficking of illegal drugs, notably the highly addictive Captagon, produced in Syria, which had become a scourge in the region.
