ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - Iran’s foreign ministry said on Monday it has ‘no direct contact’ with the new Syrian government since the fall of top ally Bashar al-Assad and that its presence in the country was solely for defeating the Islamic State (ISIS). “Our entry into Syria was to prevent the advancement of ISIS and the spread of terrorism to the countries of the region, but there is no direct connection with the current ruling in Syria.” foreign ministry spokesperson Esmail Baghaei said in a presser. He added that they had been in contact with the Syrian opposition “for a long time” to explain their purpose of being in the country. Iran was a staunch supporter of Assad’s Syrian regime, which was toppled by a coalition of rebel groups spearheaded by the Islamist Hay'at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) on December 8. On Sunday, Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei claimed that Tehran does not have proxy forces in the region after the loss of key ally Assad. “They keep saying that the Islamic republic lost its proxy forces in the region. This is another mistake. The Islamic republic does not have a proxy force,” Khamenei said in a speech. He blamed the United States and Israel for being behind the recent developments in Syria, echoing remarks by Tehran’s foreign ministry on Friday when it accused the US and Israel of having a “master plan” for the Middle East after a Washington official said there will be no place for Iran in the new Syria. Baghaei emphasized that multilateral meetings have been held with Turkey to discuss “maintaining the sovereignty and integrity of Syria,” adding that final decisions for Syria will be taken by its own people.
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