Turkey Wanted Iran to Let the Syrian Regime Collapse Says Former Envoy to Syria

Iran’s former ambassador to Syria has spoken out against some of the sides involved in the Syrian crisis. In an interview with Mizan Online, the official organ of Iran’s Judiciary system, veteran Iranian diplomat Hossein Sheikholeslam said the US and the Saudi Arabia were in shock and ‘resembled the dead’ when Aleppo was freed. Elsewhere in his remarks, Sheikholeslam said the two countries would continue their crimes and plots despite their defeat in Aleppo.

Speaking about the first years of the Syrian crisis where the ‘global arrogance’, that is, Imperialist countries, was resolved to destroy Syria, he said they were getting close to achieve their goal when terrorists had focused their attacks on Damascus and advanced as far as threatening members who were meeting in Syria National Security Council with explosion.

As he told Mizan, such measures were bolstered by the position of presidents of the US and France, the UK Prime Minister, the Saudi King, and the Qatari Emir seeking the destruction of Syria.

Sheikholeslam also gave an account of a proposition Turkey put in front of Tehran in those days. “Erdogan and Davutoglu visited Tehran to convince us that Syria should collapse and we should stop trying [to save it]. We told them the Syrians should decide the fate of Syria and it is neither our nor their business,” Mizan Online quoted the Iranian diplomat as saying.

Arguing that regime collapse was the first phase of a larger plan that failed in practice, he said a second phase was the Balkanization of Syria. “They focused on Aleppo because it was the only city that had the potential to be a capital,” he said.

“In order to reach at a favorable partitioning of Syria, they had no option but to choose an established city with economic capacities and Aleppo was the only city apart from Damascus that had the potential,” he added.

As Sheikholeslam put it, the recapture of Aleppo, or the “strategic liberation” to use his own words, has rendered this second plot abortive, too. Calling Aleppo the land of dreams for Turkey, he reiterated that those dreams are gone and Syria will not be Balkanized from now on. “Syria, once a safe haven for their visits, has now turned into a dangerous enemy for the Turks,” he added.