Iran Hails Syria's 'New Era,' Defends Persian Gulf Action Amid U.S. Tension

In comments shared with Newsweek, Iran has declared a "new era" in Syria after 12 years of conflict as the Islamic Republic's president visited the allied nation, while Tehran also defended its second seizure of an international vessel near the waters of the Persian Gulf in less than a week.

The developments came as tensions with the U.S. continued to mount on both fronts in the absence of any progress toward restoring an embattled nuclear deal.

Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi's travel to Syria on Wednesday marked the first trip of its kind since 2010, a year before the outbreak of a civil war in which Iran has proven a crucial ally to the government of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad against insurgents and jihadis, including the Islamic State militant group (ISIS). The two men signed a memorandum of understanding to deepen their "long-term strategic cooperation" and Raisi praised Assad's defiance of Western sanctions issued as a result of alleged human rights abuses committed throughout the conflict.

While Damascus and Tehran have long been partners, the visit also demonstrated the latest sign of Assad's staying power weeks after Saudi Arabia held with Syria in the interest of normalizing diplomatic ties. The talks followed a historic China-brokered deal in March for rivals Iran and Saudi Arabia to resume their own relations and a growing list of Syrian official interactions with Arab states.

"Syria has entered a new era of stability and authority, according to our assessment," the Iranian Mission to the United Nations told Newsweek.

"During the past 12 years, Iran has consistently proven its relationship with Syria as having no ups and downs, and it has been effective at defeating the destructive policy of the West and ISIS," the Mission said. "In addition, recent developments in Arab countries have indicated the correctness of Iran's policy, which has finally caused these countries to reconsider their previous policies and return to the right track."

U.S. President Joe Biden's administration has repeatedly stated it had no plans to resume relations with Syria after severing them as a crackdown on widespread protests devolved into conflict in 2011.

White House National Security Council Strategic Communications Coordinator John Kirby reiterated this position to Newsweek last month. He, along with spokespersons for the Pentagon and U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) also asserted the legitimacy under U.S. and international law of the presence of an estimated 900 U.S. troops deployed in Syria's northeast alongside the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces and in the southeast alongside partnered rebel groups in the Al-Tanf military garrison despite Syrian demands for their withdrawal.

These U.S. forces, officially tasked with fighting ISIS, have repeatedly come under rocket and drone fire from what the Pentagon has described as militias aligned with Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC). Clashes escalated in March with the death of a U.S. contractor and U.S. airstrikes against paramilitary positions in eastern Syria.

Tehran has denied any ties to attacks against U.S. personnel in Syria but has joined the Syrian government and its other major supporter, Russia, in calling for a complete U.S. military exit from the country.

These calls have more recently been echoed by Arab nations with close ties to the U.S., namely Egypt, Iraq, Jordan and Saudi Arabia in a joint statement with Syria issued on Monday. The statement called for an end to "foreign interference in Syrian domestic affairs" and the restoration of control over Syrian territory by the country's government following a meeting among the five nations' foreign ministers in the Jordanian capital of Amman.

The gathering was the first of its kind to be held since Syria was expelled from the Arab League in 2011 and came as both Damascus and Tehran sought to mend their ties within the region.

Discussing the statement during a press briefing Wednesday, State Department deputy spokesperson Vedant Patel told reporters that U.S. officials have "conveyed our concerns about the May 1 meeting in Jordan to Jordan, and others, and although we don't agree that the Assad regime merited this kind of statement, we note that Jordan and others have incorporated some of the United States's key priorities in this process."

And he too reiterated that "we don't support normalization with Damascus, and we do not support others normalizing this as well."

Patel also weighed in on Raisi's visit to Syria and his meeting with Assad, saying "that the Iranian regime and the Assad regime continuing to deepen their ties should be of great concern to not just our allies and partners and countries in the region, but also the world broadly."

"These are two regimes that have continued to partake in malign, destabilizing activities," he added, "not just in their immediate countries but also in the region broadly."

The longstanding rivalry between the U.S. and Iran has continued to worsen since 2018, when then-President Donald Trump abandoned a multilateral nuclear deal forged in 2015 under his predecessor, President Barack Obama. The deal allowed for the lifting of international sanctions in exchange for Tehran severely curbing its nuclear program, which the Islamic Republic has always denied was geared toward building a weapon of mass destruction.

As the return of U.S. sanctions once again disrupted Iran's international trade ties, Tehran gradually reduced its commitment to the nuclear agreement, formally known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA). Multiple rounds of talks held among the deal's signatories since Biden came into office in 2021 have yet to produce a viable framework for mutual U.S.-Iranian compliance.

In addition to clashes between U.S. troops and militias in Syria and neighboring Iraq, the absence of JPCOA implementation has also been accompanied by unrest in the Persian Gulf, where a number of ships have been subject to unclaimed attacks blamed on Iran by the U.S. and a number of its allies. Iranian forces have also seized a number of ships over the years that Tehran has accused of engaging in unlawful maritime behavior.

Two such actions involving oil tankers have occurred over the past week, with the Iranian military seizing the Marshall Islands-flagged Advantage Sweet in the Gulf of Oman last Thursday after it allegedly collided with an Iranian vessel and the IRGC seizing the Panama-flagged Niovi in the Strait of Hormuz on Wednesday, allegedly by a judicial order issued by a plaintiff.

In both cases, U.S. Naval Forces CENTCOM said that "Iran's actions are contrary to international law and disruptive to regional security and stability."

"Over the past two years, Iran has harassed, attacked or interfered with the navigational rights of 15 internationally flagged merchant vessels," U.S. Naval Forces CENTCOM said in response to Wednesday's incident. "Iran's continued harassment of vessels and interference with navigational rights in regional waters are unwarranted, irresponsible and a present threat to maritime security and the global economy."

The Iranian Mission to the U.N. disputed this account, however.

"Iran believes it is responsible for the security of the Persian Gulf," the Mission told Newsweek. "We vehemently oppose any externally led harmful activity in the Persian Gulf and disapprove of any U.S.-led or other self-appointed, security-related actions."

"The Islamic Republic of Iran, however, acknowledges any harmless passage that adheres to Iranian laws and regulations in its neighboring waters as well as to pertinent international maritime law norms," the Mission added. "Iran deals with the offender, regardless of its flag, cargo or ownership. The recent Iranian action is consistent with the country's principal legal positions and deeds."

This article has been updated to include comments by U.S. State Department deputy spokesperson Vedant Patel.