Why Aleppo will serve to embolden Iran

Syria's President Bashar al-Assad meets with Ali Akbar Velayati (L), the top adviser on international affairs to Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Damascus, Syria, May 7, 2016.  (photo by REUTERS/SANA)

From: Al-Monitor

In a Dec. 18 interview, Ali Akbar Velayati, the Iranian supreme leader’s foreign policy adviser, described the developments in eastern Aleppo as "the most important victory during the past five years in which Syria has been entangled in the war on terrorism,” adding that they are “a prelude to future victories.” On the same day, Supreme National Security Council Secretary Ali Shamkhani said in his meeting with visiting Russian special envoy on Syria Alexander Lavrentiev that the advance in eastern Aleppo was the outcome of initiatives by Iran, Russia, Syria and the “resistance front.”

Observers have noted that the Syrian government’s victory in the northern city is not limited to Aleppo, but could also influence the future of the war. The conflict has been continuing for close to six years now, and has impacted not only Syria but the entire Middle East, pitting regional players against each other. But who are the winners and losers of this lengthy war?

Saeed Laylaz, a prominent analyst and a professor at Tehran’s Shahid Beheshti University, told Al-Monitor, “The biggest winner of this conflict is the United States. … The policy that Washington has been implementing in the Middle East for decades has pitted regional powers against each other — eroding their energy, money and power — without inflicting any costs on the United States or its interests.”

But if the situation truly is as Laylaz describes, then why do Western officials appear so worried about the Syrian government’s advances in Aleppo? Speaking at the United Nations Security Council on Dec. 14, Samantha Power, the US ambassador to the United Nations, called for Russia to feel ashamed about what was going on in Aleppo. Moreover, addressing a meeting of European Union leaders in Brussels on Dec. 15, UK Prime Minister Theresa May condemned what she described as atrocities being carried out by Syrian President Bashar al-Assad with the backing of Russia and Iran. US President Barack Obama joined this condemnation during his last end-of-the year press conference Dec. 16, holding Assad's regime, Iran and Russia responsible for what he described as the carnage in Aleppo. Obama also called for the deployment of international observers to the Syrian city.

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