Secretary of Iran's Supreme National Security Council: We Do Not Regret Spending in Syria

The Secretary of Iran's Supreme National Security Council stated that the Islamic Republic does not regret the costs incurred in Syria in recent years before the fall of Bashar al-Assad's government. Ali Akbar Ahmadian, in an interview with the website of the Supreme Leader of the Islamic Republic published on Thursday, December 20, said: "We do not regret it because our presence and expenditure were for our own security, and the expected achievements were also realized." He claimed, like other Iranian officials in recent years, that Iran's presence in Syria was to fight ISIS and that "if ISIS had not been defeated in Syria and Iraq, we would have had to fight ISIS inside the country at tenfold the cost today." Throughout the 13 years of the Syrian civil war, the Islamic Republic of Iran has only claimed the presence of a small number of its "military advisors" based on a military agreement with Syria, and Ahmadian reiterated that after the defeat of ISIS, only part of Iran's forces remained in Syria to "assist" the Syrian army. However, even according to official narratives from the Islamic Republic, the presence of Iranian government forces in Syria began at the start of the conflict between Assad's government and the opposition in 2011, before ISIS emerged. As the Assad government faced imminent collapse due to the advance of armed rebels, two former Iranian parliament representatives reported uncertainty regarding the settlement of Syria's "$30 billion debt" to Iran and criticized this issue. Many users on social media emphasized the futility of the Islamic Republic's support for Bashar al-Assad, recalling Iran's financial and military expenditures in Syria during the civil war after the rebels entered Damascus and Bashar al-Assad fled to Russia. The fall of Bashar al-Assad's government, according to the Secretary-General of Hezbollah Lebanon, has led to the loss of military support routes for this group. However, the Secretary of Iran's Supreme National Security Council claimed that Hezbollah, the extremist group Hamas, and the Palestinian Islamic Jihad are "not very dependent on our direct and physical support today." Ahmadian, who was previously an admiral in the Revolutionary Guards before joining the Supreme National Security Council, also addressed criticisms regarding the delay in Iran's response to the Israeli attack on November 5. He condemned the "instillation of fear," which he claimed is the "enemy's strategy," stating that some individuals with the intent to "destroy" raise questions like "What happened to the third honest promise? Are you going to strike now or tomorrow?" The Secretary of the Supreme National Security Council continued, "This issue has military logic. We will strike whenever it is necessary and appropriate, whenever it causes the enemy more pain, and whenever it helps our national interests. Operations cannot and should not be conducted based on emotions." Iranian military and political officials have labeled Iran's attacks on Israel in Farvardin and Mehr as "the first and second honest promises," and in recent weeks, some supporters of the Iranian government have criticized the failure to carry out a third attack on Israel. Meanwhile, Iranian officials have repeatedly promised a response to the Israeli attack in November. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced three weeks after the Israeli military attack on Iran that this attack not only struck the air defense and missile production capabilities of the Islamic Republic but also targeted "a specific part" of Iran's nuclear program. He also warned in a video message on November 23 that if the Islamic Republic of Iran attacks Israel for the third time, its economy will be crippled. Netanyahu pointed out that the Iranian government is obsessed with destroying Israel rather than building Iran, stating: "Another attack on Israel will cripple Iran's economy." Ali Akbar Ahmadian also criticized "some of our own" who accuse Iranian military commanders, who "were in the battlefield yesterday and are still at risk of martyrdom every day," of being "cowards." He warned that this "demanding is not a form of accountability; it is an unintentional fall into the enemy's psychological operations game." Meanwhile, some hardline supporters of the Islamic Republic, some of whom supported Saeed Jalili in this year's presidential election in Iran, have been pursuing a campaign called "Demanding the Third Honest Promise" on social media.