Senator Fetterman: The remnants of the Islamic Republic's nuclear program must be destroyed

John Fetterman, the Democratic Senator from Pennsylvania, reacted to recent statements made in a speech by a senior military official of the Islamic Republic regarding the severe blow to the Iranian government following the fall of Assad's regime, emphasizing the necessity of destroying the remnants of this government's nuclear program. Senator Fetterman, in a message posted on social media platform X, shared a post from the 'Times of Israel' regarding this matter, interpreting the remarks of Behrouz Esbati, a senior official in the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) and head of the Cyber Headquarters of the General Staff of the Armed Forces, as confirmation of the severe limitation of the Islamic Republic's military capabilities for 'defending or expanding its regional agenda.' In his message published on Thursday, January 20, he stated, 'Whatever remains of Iran's nuclear program must be destroyed, and I support efforts to this end.' A senior IRGC official accused Russia of 'betrayal' towards the Islamic Republic in Syria, admitting that 'we lost in Syria; we lost badly!' Behrouz Esbati, in a speech recently released by media affiliated with the Islamic Republic, claimed that the Russians turned off their radar systems at 'critical' moments, allowing Israel to easily target IRGC commanders. He stated that due to the 'betrayal' of the Russians, Israel easily eliminated IRGC commanders, including Mohammad Reza Zahedi, deputy of the Quds Force, Seyed Reza Mousavi, responsible for Quds Force support in Syria, and Sadegh Omidzadeh, deputy of intelligence for this force. Esbati also pointed to Russia's role in the collapse of Bashar Assad's regime in Syria, claiming that 'the Russians acted completely on Israel's side after the Al-Aqsa storm and deceived Bashar Assad.' He referred to the loss of the Islamic Republic's position in Syria and Assad's government's willingness to replace it with Arab countries, mentioning the lack of a welcome for Ebrahim Raisi during his visit to the country, saying, 'We realized that they were not going to welcome Raisi. We quickly established a headquarters and decorated the entire road in five or six hours,' but later 'we saw that from the airport to the palace, the UAE flag was raised because the UAE foreign minister wanted to come in the morning and return in the evening. We protested.' This IRGC official claimed that the Islamic Republic's request for '1,000 Kalashnikovs from Russia to maintain one of the important lines in Syria' was met with Russian opposition, stating that 'the Assad government has put the most pressure on the Iranians in the last three months.' Behrouz Esbati, referring to Assad's statement that 'I am your support platform and will not enter into war with Israel,' said that '[the Islamic Republic] Iran lost in Syria. We lost badly!' and emphasized, 'I do not take pride in losing Syria. No, we were hit. We lost. We lost badly. It was very hard for us.' Meanwhile, he described the 'defeat of the resistance forces' or, in other words, the forces of the 'axis of evil,' as a perception resulting from 'Israeli psychological operations,' and regarding a potential attack by the Islamic Republic on Israel under the title 'Operation Promise Keeper 3,' he stated that dragging the region into war under current conditions is not in the interest of the Islamic Republic and its proxy forces. The publication of Behrouz Esbati's remarks, whose exact timing and location are unclear, has caught the attention of some social media users. One user on X wrote that the Islamic Republic of Iran 'has supported Bashar Assad's regime for over 13 years by sending its forces to Syria and has also deployed Hezbollah and other proxy groups, including Fatemiyoun, to counter Assad's opponents in Syria,' but 'with the fall of Bashar Assad's regime and his flight to Moscow, it lost its most important ally in the region.' Additionally, one of the defenders of the Islamic Republic active on social media criticized the performance of the Iranian military forces in Syria, saying, 'What fault did the Messenger of God have that you became a soldier of Russia?' The admission by a senior IRGC official of the Islamic Republic's severe defeat in Syria comes at a time when Ali Khamenei has called for strengthening the Shiite militia group Hashd al-Shaabi in Iraq, which is one of the Islamic Republic's proxy arms. Khamenei, who denied the presence of the Islamic Republic's proxy forces in the region two weeks ago, stated on Wednesday, January 19, in a meeting with the Iraqi Prime Minister, 'Hashd al-Shaabi is one of the important components of power in Iraq that must be strengthened more than ever.' Following the fall of Bashar Assad's regime in Syria, observers have emphasized that the overthrow of Assad was a 'fatal blow' to the Islamic Republic. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, following the fall of the previous Syrian regime, addressed the Iranian people, stating that the extensive support of the Islamic Republic for Bashar Assad's regime and its proxy groups in the region meant, 'The money that the oppressors stole from you literally turned to smoke.' Prince Reza Pahlavi also welcomed Netanyahu's remarks, urging other leaders of the free world to engage in direct dialogue with the Iranian people instead of 'fruitless negotiations with the repressive regime.'