During a surprise visit to Tehran, Syrian President Bashar al-Assad met with Iran’s supreme leader and the country’s president. Iran is a crucial military ally of the Syrian regime.

According to Nournews, a publication connected with Iran’s Supreme National Security Council, Assad talked with Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and President Ebrahim Raisi after making a surprise visit to the Iranian capital on Sunday morning and then returned to Damascus the same day (SNSC).

The meeting was confirmed on the website of the Supreme Leader. According to the summary of the uncommon meeting, Khamenei told Assad that his “success in an international conflict” has boosted Syria’s credibility and that Iran seeks to strengthen bilateral ties.

“Today’s Syria is not Syria before the war, even though there was no destruction back then, but now the respect and credibility of Syria is much more and all look to it as a power,” Khamenei was quoted as saying.

Khamenei also targeted nations in the area that have normalized relations with Israel or held high-level talks with its officials, claiming that this is happening while their own people are screaming anti-Zionist chants on Quds Day.

This is the Syrian president’s second visit to Tehran since the country’s civil conflict began in 2011. He earlier met with Iran’s supreme leader, his most important regional ally, in February 2019.

Assad was joined on his visit by Qassem Soleimani, the commander-in-chief of the Quds Force, the foreign operations wing of the elite Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC).

Soleimani was killed by a US drone operation in Iraq in January 2020, during the presidency of former President Donald Trump.

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