Iran High-Ranking Officials Withdraw Amid Syrian Rebel Advance... Russia Issues Evacuation Order for Its Citizens

As Syrian rebel forces began capturing major northern cities starting with Aleppo and threatened the capital, reports emerged that Iranian officials who had been supporting Bashar al-Assad's dictatorship were fleeing abroad.

On the 6th (local time), an anti-government Syrian fighter jet carried a missile launcher in Hama, central Syria. Photo by AFP Yonhap News

On the 6th (local time), according to the American daily The New York Times (NYT), anonymous Iranian government officials said that Iranian nationals in Syria began evacuating from that morning.

The officials stated, "Some left by plane heading to Tehran, the capital of Iran, while others traveled by land to Lebanon, Iraq, and Syria's Latakia port."

They also revealed that among those who went to Iraq and Lebanon were senior commanders of the elite Quds Force of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC).

Evacuation orders were also issued to the Iranian embassy in Damascus and local IRGC bases, and evacuations are currently underway targeting diplomats' families and Iranian civilians, the officials reported.

The NYT pointed out that it is surprising for Iran, which has continuously supported the government forces led by President Bashar al-Assad throughout the 13-year Syrian civil war, to take such measures.

Iran, which has deployed military advisors and commanders to the frontlines of the Syrian civil war and supported local militias, is considered one of the strongest backers of the al-Assad regime alongside Russia.

However, the Syrian government forces have shown continuous weakness as anti-government forces led by the Islamic militant group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) captured Aleppo, Syria's second-largest city, on the 30th of last month and advanced toward Damascus.

The NYT interpreted that Iran may have decided to evacuate personnel locally because it had no further means to respond to the government forces' retreat without proper resistance, abandoning equipment such as tanks.

Mehdi Rahmati, a prominent Iranian analyst, said in a phone interview with the NYT, "Iran has started evacuating its troops and soldiers. If the Syrian army does not want to fight on its own, we, as advisors and supporting forces, cannot fight."

He added, "The key point is that Iran has realized it cannot handle the situation in Syria with any military operation at the moment and has excluded that option from consideration."

Meanwhile, according to Russian independent media such as The Moscow Times, the Russian embassy in Syria advised all Russian nationals residing in Syria to evacuate the country on the same day.

In a statement posted on its Telegram channel, the Russian embassy in Syria said, "The military and political situation in Syria is difficult," and "The embassy reminds Russian citizens living in Syria that they can leave the country using commercial flights from the operational airports."