The Syrian government has been the target of the biggest onslaught by rebel troops in recent memory.
After the Syrian military evacuated its forces, they took control of a large portion of the country’s north-west, including the majority of the second city of Aleppo.
The rebels are currently fighting the military in the central city of Hama, while the government’s important backer Russia is conducting air attacks against them.
On Wednesday, HTS and allied groups said they had launched an offensive to “deter aggression”, accusing the government and allied Iran-backed militias of escalation in the north-west.
President Assad has vowed to “crush” the rebels, referring to them as “terrorists”.
In a call with his Iranian counterpart Massoud Pezeshkian on Monday, he blamed the US and other Western countries for the offensive, saying them were trying to “redraw the map” of the region.
Pezeshkian emphasised that Iran stood “firmly alongside the Syrian government and people”, and that preserving Syria’s sovereignty and territorial integrity was a cornerstone of its regional strategy.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Russia also considered the situation around Aleppo as “an attack on Syrian sovereignty”, and that it was ”in favour of the Syrian authorities bringing order to the area and restoring constitutional order as soon as possible”.
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Source: BBC
