The newly appointed Syrian Foreign Minister of the caretaker government, Asaad Hassan al-Shibani, has warned Iran against spreading chaos in Syria.

Al-Shibani stated in a post on the platform “X” on Tuesday, December 24, that Iran must respect the will of the Syrian people, the sovereignty of the country, and its safety.

The Syrian Foreign Minister held Iran responsible for the repercussions of its statements regarding Syria.

This comes after statements made by Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi on Tuesday, in which he said that developments in Syria cannot be judged due to several factors affecting the future of the country, according to the Iranian Mehr news agency.

He added that there would be many developments, and “it is premature to issue a judgment in this regard.”

Araghchi had stated on December 21 that what happened in Syria is part of a “huge project plotted by the US and Israel to eliminate any resistance against Israel.”

He added that Tehran does not impose any decisions on the “Axis of Resistance” and does not seek to intervene in Syrian affairs, asserting that its presence in Syria was at the invitation of Bashar al-Assad’s regime to combat “armed groups.”

Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei described the fall of the ousted Syrian president Bashar al-Assad on December 22 as “chaos,” accusing the Syrian revolutionaries of causing this chaos.

He stated that the advance of the Syrian opposition on the ground is “not a victory,” denying the existence of Iranian influence in Syria, according to Iran International news website.

The leader of the General Command in Syria, Ahmed al-Sharaa (al-Jolani), stated in an interview with the Saudi newspaper Asharq al-Awsat on December 20, that Syria had become “a platform for Iran” through which it managed four Arab capitals, causing wars, corruption, and flooding the region with drugs.

Al-Sharaa confirmed that expelling Iranian militias from Syria has achieved security stability, considering that the Iranian project has declined by 40 years.

Khamenei previously described Iraq, Syria, and Lebanon in December 2022 as Iran’s “strategic depth.”

He also mentioned in another speech that one of the pillars of national power is to influence “other peoples and create strategic depth for Tehran.”

Iran in Syria

Iranian-backed militias have spread across several Syrian provinces, fighting for years alongside the former Syrian regime against armed Syrian opposition factions.

According to the Jusoor For Studies Center, Iranian military sites in Syria witnessed a limited decrease in number (from 570 to 529) before the fall of the Syrian regime.

Despite this decrease, the Jusoor Center’s report noted that Iran remains the state with the largest military presence in Syria compared to other foreign powers.

Iran referred to the officers of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) deployed in Syria to support the Syrian regime as “military advisors.”