Senior IRGC Official Admits Defeat in Syria: 'We Lost, and We Lost Badly'

A senior official of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) has accused Russia of 'betrayal' towards the Islamic Republic in Syria, admitting that 'we lost in Syria; we lost badly!' Behrouz Esbati, head of the Cyber Headquarters of the Armed Forces General Staff, in a speech recently published 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, Seyyed Reza Mousavi, head of Quds Force support in Syria, and Sadegh Omidzadeh, deputy of intelligence for this force. Esbati also referred to Russia's role in the collapse of Bashar al-Assad's regime in Syria, claiming that 'the Russians acted completely on the side of Israel after the Al-Aqsa Storm' and 'deceived Bashar al-Assad.' He pointed to the loss of the Islamic Republic's standing in Syria and Assad's inclination to replace Iranian influence with Arab countries, mentioning the lack of welcome for Ebrahim Raisi during his visit to Syria, 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 'saw that the road from the airport to the palace was filled with the UAE flag 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.' Esbati emphasized that 'Iran lost in Syria. We lost badly!' and added, '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 what he termed the 'axis of evil' as a perception resulting from 'Israeli psychological operations' and 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 statements, which is unclear when and where they were made, has attracted attention from some social media users. One user wrote that the Islamic Republic has 'supported Bashar al-Assad's government for over 13 years by sending its forces to Syria and also stationed Hezbollah and other proxy groups, including Fatemiyoun, to counter Assad's opponents in Syria,' but 'with the fall of Bashar al-Assad's government and his flight to Moscow, it lost its most important ally in the region.' Additionally, a defender of the Islamic Republic active on social media criticized the performance of Iranian military forces in Syria, saying, 'What fault did the Prophet have that you became soldiers of Russia?' The admission by a senior IRGC official of the Islamic Republic's severe defeat in Syria comes as Ali Khamenei has called for strengthening the Shiite paramilitary group Hashd al-Shaabi in Iraq, one of the Islamic Republic's proxy arms. Khamenei, who denied the presence of the Islamic Republic's proxy forces in regional countries two weeks ago, stated during a meeting with the Iraqi Prime Minister on Wednesday, January 19, that '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 al-Assad's government 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 government, addressed the Iranian people, stating that the extensive support of the Islamic Republic for Bashar al-Assad's regime and its proxy groups in the region meant that 'the money that the oppressors stole from you literally went up in smoke.' Prince Reza Pahlavi also welcomed Netanyahu's remarks, inviting other leaders of the free world to engage in direct dialogue with the Iranian people instead of 'fruitless negotiations with the repressive regime.'