The efforts to seize Aleppo, which was launched final yr however had been delayed as a result of struggle in Gaza, had been launched final week after the cease-fire between Israel and Lebanon, the chief of Syria’s essential opposition group stated Monday.
The insurgents had been in a position to seize the town and elements of neighboring Idlib province so shortly partially as a result of Hezbollah and different Iran-backed fighters had been distracted by their battle with Israel, Hadi al-Bahra stated in an interview on Monday.
The Turkish navy, which is allied with a few of the opposition forces and has bases throughout its southern border in Syria, had heard of the armed teams’ plans however made clear it will play no direct function, he added.
The assault in northwestern Syria was launched final Wednesday, the day that Israel and the Lebanese group Hezbollah started a truce ending greater than a yr of combating.
“A year ago they started really training and mobilizing and taking it more seriously,” stated al-Bahra, president of the National Coalition of Syrian Revolution and Opposition Forces, the internationally-recognized Syrian opposition.
“But the war on Gaza … then the war in Lebanon delayed it. They felt it wouldn’t look good having the war in Lebanon at the same time they were fighting in Syria,” he stated in his Istanbul workplace, within the first public feedback on the insurgent preparations by an opposition determine.
“So the moment there was a cease-fire in Lebanon, they found that opportunity … to start.”
The anti-regime operation is the boldest advance and largest problem to Syrian President Bashar Assad in years of a civil struggle the place the entrance strains have largely been frozen since 2020.
Syrian and allied Russian forces have launched counterattacks, which Bahra stated are “destabilizing” Aleppo and Idlib and pose the most important danger to civilians, given the sooner opposition advances had sought fastidiously to keep away from such casualties.
Iran, Russia
The opposition retaking of Aleppo additionally paves the way in which for lots of of 1000’s of Syrians displaced elsewhere within the nation and in Türkiye to return residence, Bahra stated.
“Due to the Lebanese war and decrease in Hezbollah forces, (Assad’s) regime has less support,” he stated, including that Iranian militias even have fewer assets whereas Russia is giving much less air cowl resulting from its “Ukraine problem.”
Iran-backed Hezbollah didn’t instantly touch upon whether or not its struggle with Israel opened the door to Syrian opposition advances in Aleppo, the place it additionally has personnel.
Tehran has pledged to help the Syrian authorities and on Monday lots of of fighters from Iran-backed Iraqi militias crossed into Syria to assist combat the opposition, Syrian and Iraqi sources stated.
A Turkish protection ministry official stated final week that Türkiye was carefully monitoring the mobilization and taking precautions for its troops.
Bahra’s coalition, which doesn’t embody HTS, represents anti-Assad teams together with the Türkiye-backed Syrian National Army or Free Syrian Army, which took territory north of Idlib over the past week.
It holds common diplomatic talks with the United Nations and a number of other states.
Source: www.dailysabah.com