Iran security chief says ‘new resistance’ against Israel to emerge in Syria

Iran’s security chief Ali Akbar Ahmadian said a new group would emerge in Syria to fight Israel following the fall of president Bashar al-Assad, state media reported.

“With the occupation of Syrian territories by the Zionist regime, a new resistance has been born that will manifest itself in the years to come,” said Ahmadian, the secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council, IRNA news agency reported late Monday.

In a meeting with Oman’s foreign minister, Ahmadian insisted that Iran’s “axis of resistance” – a network of regional militias backed by Tehran – was “not weakened” after the December 8 fall of al-Assad, a longtime ally of Iran.

Al-Assad fled Syria after opposition forces led by the “Hayat Tahrir al-Sham” (HTS) group seized the capital Damascus after a lightning offensive.

Israel has carried out hundreds of airstrikes on Syrian military facilities since al-Assad’s fall, saying it aimed to prevent them from falling into hostile hands.

Israeli troops also occupied strategic positions in a UN-patrolled buffer zone between Syria and the Israeli-annexed Golan Heights which it seized in the 1967 Arab-Israeli war.

The move was described by UN chief Antonio Guterres as a breach of the 1974 armistice between the two countries.

Iran has since condemned Israel’s seizure of land in Syria.

Tehran’s allies in the region, including Hamas in Gaza and Hezbollah in Lebanon, have suffered severe blows in conflicts with Israel since the outbreak of the Gaza war in 2023.

During Monday’s meeting, Ahmadian maintained that Iran has “not changed” its nuclear doctrine against pursuing atomic weapons, IRNA reported.

Last month, Iran’s foreign minister Abbas Araghchi said in an interview with The Guardian newspaper that frustration in Tehran over unmet commitments, such as lifting sanctions, was fueling debate over whether the country should alter its nuclear policy.

Iran insists on its right to nuclear energy for peaceful purposes and has consistently denied any ambition of developing weapons capability.