Syria crisis: Iran and Assad have won, say top Tehran foreign policy figures

[cqo_000]

Source: The Guardian

Iran and its close ally President Bashar al-Assad have won the war in Syria and the US-orchestrated campaign in support of the opposition's attempt to topple the Syrian regime has failed, senior Iranian officials have told the Guardian.

In a series of interviews in Tehran, top figures who shape Iranian foreign policy said that the west's strategy in Syria had merely encouraged radicals, caused chaos and ultimately backfired, with government forces now on the front foot.

"We have won in Syria," said Alaeddin Broujerdi, chairman of the Iranian parliament's national security and foreign policy committee and an influential government insider. "The regime will stay. The Americans have lost it."

Terrorism perpetrated by al-Qaida-linked jihadist groups and individuals armed and funded by Sunni Muslim Arab countries was now the main threat facing the Syrian people, Broujerdi said. Many foreign fighters who had travelled to Syria from Britain and other European countries could soon return.

Read more: http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/may/11/syria-crisis-iran-assad-won-war-tehran

[Spitfire of ATJ]

1. Can you hear it?

John McCain just had a wargasm.

[Comrade Grumpy]

2. They're right. The "Syrian revolution" is over, although the killing continues.

The rebels have been strategically defeated.

Someone should tell Obama. His policy to this day is to supply war-making material to "good" rebels in a bid to bleed Syria enough to force Assad to negotiate his own exit. That ain't happening. And that makes Obama's policy a cynical exercise. And not just that. It will get more people killed. For nothing.

[cosmicone]

3. Precisely

We should have supported Bashar Assad and coaxed some gradual relaxation rather than taking him head-on.