Hezbollah and Iran May Need Plan B After Syria Bombing
Hezbollah Chief Hassan Nasrallah and Iran seemed stunned a day after several members of Bashar al-Assad’s inner circle were assassinated at a cabinet meeting in Damascus, writes Laura Rozen. Neither was prepared for the Syrian status quo to shift so quickly and Iran hasn't even begun to prepare for a Syria Plan B.
A day after several members of Bashar al-Assad’s inner circle were assassinated at a cabinet meeting in Damascus, Assad’s allies may be beginning to re-evaluate his longevity and what comes next, some regional analysts said.
But speeches by Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah Wednesday and Iran’s initially stunned reaction to events in Damascus suggest neither was quite prepared for the Syrian status quo to shift so quickly.
Syrian State TV aired a video of Assad Thursday amid speculation about his whereabouts, CNN reported. The video showed Assad conferring with his new Defense Minister Gen. Fahd Jassem al-Freij, who was appointed to succeed Gen. Daoud Rajha, one of the top Assad security aides killed at a cabinet meeting.
Russia and China, meantime, on Thursday vetoed a Western-backed UN Security Council Resolution that would have imposed possible sanctions if Syrian security forces did not pull back to barracks within 10 days.
