Blinken: We were surprised by the fall of Assad

According to RCO News Agency, US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken, who recently visited the region after the fall of Bashar Assad’s government in Syria, expressed his surprise in a conversation about the rapid developments in Syria and the rise of the armed opposition group in this country. And he claimed that this happened mostly because of the American pressure on Russia and Iran, which had close relations with the Assad government.

The government of “Bashar Assad” fell after the advance of the country’s armed opposition led to Damascus on December 8. Asad went to Russia with his family. Currently, the transitional government in Syria, headed by “Ahmad al-Shora”, the commander of the Tahrir al-Sham editorial group, is in charge of running the country.

Surprised by the fall of Bashar Assad’s government in Syria

The Financial Times reported that Blinken, speaking to the newspaper after returning from a trip to the West Asia region, said that his trip to Jordan, Turkey and Iraq helped to harmonize the expectations of the transitional government officials in Damascus through the appointment of It became a “road map” but warned that the situation was “very difficult”.

Referring to the current situation in Syria after the fall of the Assad government, Blinken said: There are great opportunities at this time, especially after the horror of the Assad dictatorship, but we have seen one dictator being replaced by another dictator many times. It is very important to come in quickly and unite everyone, which we did.

Blinken said he was appalled by the rapid fall of Bashar al-Assad’s government, which he claimed was partly due to the pressure the United States had put on Russia and Iran, which he called “Assad’s backers.” “They weren’t in a position to really come to his rescue,” Blinken claimed.

Blinken’s claim about Iran’s role in this matter is raised while Iran’s Foreign Minister Seyed Abbas Araghchi said in a television interview about the fall of the Assad government: “Analysis and News indicated that such a move would be made.” We knew about the developments and movements in Idlib, the Syrian government also knew, and we had provided the information related to this issue to the Syrian government and army.

He continued: What was surprising was the inability of the Syrian army to counter this move and the speed of developments in Syria. In the meeting that Mr. Larijani and I had with Mr. Bashar Assad, he himself was surprised and complained about the performance of the Syrian army and it was clear that even in the Syrian government there was no proper analysis of the situation of the Syrian army. I think that the Syrian army was more involved in the psychological war than it was in the field, the propaganda and creation of atmosphere that took place in the virtual space, etc., were effective in reducing the motivations of the Syrian army. This was not only unexpected for Iran, but also for many countries in the region, this speed of developments was unexpected.

According to Araghchi, “During these events, there was a behind-the-scenes design by the United States and the Zionist regime to make the resistance axis suffer successive problems.”

Financial Times wrote: In the continuation of this conversation, in response to what he thinks about the claim of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who said that it was Israel’s pressure on Iran that created the conditions for the fall of Assad, Blinken explained: I imagine that the Prime Minister Be one of the first to confirm that the unprecedented support we gave to Israel was met with unprecedented attacks by Iran, which changed the situation. Iran is not in a position to start a war with anyone. This issue had tangible consequences that were positive for Syria.

He added that the main challenge, now, is to turn this situation into a “positive and durable” result and “hand over power to the Trump administration in the best possible way.”

The US Secretary of State stated that, in his opinion, US President-elect Donald Trump will be motivated to act in the field of Syria due to his success in the first term of his presidency in completing the mission of eliminating the ISIS caliphate. According to him, Trump “has a strong incentive to make sure we don’t see the re-emergence of ISIS.”

Cooperation with other countries as a pressure lever against China

This English newspaper further wrote: Blinken, in another part of this conversation, referring to Biden’s efforts to establish a connection between the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans, said that during his four years of diplomatic activity in this administration, Blinken was “most satisfied” with the renewal of coalitions. which showed that “what happens in one area has profound consequences in another.”

He points out that four countries in the Indo-Pacific region, including Japan, Australia, New Zealand and South Korea, were invited to participate in NATO meetings under the Biden administration, and now the trans-Pacific military alliance is criticizing China, which was previously unthinkable.

Blinken claimed that China is still providing it with important equipment to rebuild Russia’s defense industry, and this “contains strong evidence that some of the biggest threats to European security, unfortunately, come from countries far from the region.” They have Indo-Pacific.”

Blinken has repeatedly criticized Beijing for allowing Chinese companies to send dual-use civilian and military goods to Russia. In response to the fact that the bilateral trade rate between Russia and China has not decreased, why the Biden administration has not taken more serious measures to prevent it, pointing out that China has claimed that it wants to help the peace of Ukraine, he said: They want both God and dates. China has seen the concern of many countries that, along with the United States, have imposed sanctions against Chinese institutions that help Russia’s war actions.

He also responded to the question of whether Washington still has the capacity to lead the world in view of the wide range of global challenges and the increasing influence of China. “Bad acting”.

The US Secretary of State emphasized that now, “it is more valuable than ever to work with other countries to have more leverage to respond to China.”

As Blinken works with allies on China, he and other cabinet ministers have increased engagement with China over the past two years. Some consider this procedure fruitless, but Blinken says that negotiations with Beijing, despite the differences, are Washington’s responsibility.

Asked if, in his view, these interactions have reduced the likelihood of conflict with China over Taiwan, he asserted, “Yes. “Certainly, the possibility of an accidental conflict, maybe even intentional (reduced).”

Responding to the fact that the Biden administration’s sanctions against China don’t seem to have worked, Blinken said: “It’s not like turning a light switch on and off.” But I think (sanctions) have put China in a difficult position. Of course, they are not satisfied with the actions we have taken against Chinese institutions. I suspect more sanctions will be coming in the coming weeks if needed.

Worst moment as US Secretary of State

This newspaper wrote: The Secretary of State of the United States says that the worst moment for him as the Secretary of State of the Biden administration was when 13 American soldiers were killed while leaving Afghanistan in 2021. The way of managing the withdrawal of American troops from Kabul is considered a big failure for the Biden administration. However, Blinken defended the US government’s decision to withdraw its troops, saying Washington’s enemies wanted to see it “caught” in Afghanistan. However, he emphasized that it was “extremely difficult” for these people to die when the military withdrew.

While the American government has played a major role in the suffering of Gaza civilians with its full political, military and financial support to the Zionist regime in the Gaza war, he says that one of his “painful moments” during this time was the operation ” Al-Aqsa Storm” by Hamas against the occupied territories on October 7, 2023 and the suffering of innocent civilians in Gaza followed it.

The claim of the Biden government’s support for Palestinian civilians despite the full support of the Zionist regime

The British media reported: Blinken, in response to whether, in his opinion, the United States has been able to establish a proper balance in helping to support its biggest ally in the region, namely the Zionist regime, and helping the Palestinians, said that the United States has three goals; “Standing with Israel, preventing another seven Octobers from happening to avoid a wider war and doing everything possible to protect innocent Palestinians.”

In this regard, he made claims against the Hamas movement and said: We are in a unique and difficult situation, because Hamas is intertwined with this population, but this makes Israel’s responsibility to do everything to avoid civilian casualties and ensure the arrival of aid. Humanity has not been done to people.

Washington’s concern about Russia’s nuclear threats in the Ukraine war

The Financial Times wrote that in the final part of the conversation, in response to how seriously the United States had taken Russian President Vladimir Putin’s nuclear showdown in the Ukraine war, Blinken said that the United States was “very concerned” because Putin seemed, at least, , is considering nuclear options.

He added: Even if the probability of it increases from 5 to 15 percent, raising the issue of nuclear weapons is more serious than anything else.

The foreign minister said Putin had suffered a “strategic failure” and that NATO was bigger and better funded than ever.

However, without directly referring to Trump’s criticism of Europe on NATO funding, Blaken said that US allies’ financial aid was $150 billion and US aid was $100 billion, and he did not think anyone could complain to them. They have not paid their fair share.

He also disagreed with the statements about the delay of the Biden administration in supplying weapons to Ukraine and said that several factors should be considered to judge this, including the ability of Ukraine to use these weapons systems and maintain them.

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