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Iranian Shi'ite scholars shared their opinions on the fall of the Bashar Al-Assad regime in a debate aired on DidarNews on YouTube on December 17, 2024. Abbas Nabavi, the head of the Institute for Islamic Development and Civilization said: "We need a viable Jihad movement." He added that if Iran were to tell America and the West, "don't mess with us, and we won't mess with you," they will laugh at us.
Abbas Abdolrahim Soleimani-Ardestani, a member of the Researchers Forum of the Religious Seminaries in Qom congratulated the Syrian people from the bottom of his heart on the fall of Al-Assad, whom he called a "ruthless dictator" and expressed his hope that the Syrians will be able to implement a "real democratic regime." He added that such a thing does not exist in the Islamic world. Soleimani-Ardestani warned the Syrian people to avoid repeating the mistake of the Iranian people. He said that Iran was wrong to sacrifice the lives of its young people and Iran's financial assets in order to protect a dictator who oppressed his own people, and he said that Iran's mistake in Syria was as "terrible" as its mistake in Palestine.
Abbas Nabavi: "We need a viable Jihadi movement.
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"If we do not have such a movement, and we say to America and the West: 'Don't mess with us, and we won't mess with you' – they will laugh at us."
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Abbas Abdolrahim Soleimani-Ardestani: "First of all, I would like to congratulate the Syrian people on the fall of a ruthless dictator. I hope that the Syrians will be able to implement a real democratic regime. Such a thing does not exist in the Islamic world.
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"I would also like to congratulate the Iranian people.
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"Not only do these things have nothing to do with us, but they also contradict our religion. A dictator is oppressive against his own people, and we intervene to protect him, sacrificing our young people – in what we call 'the defense of the sacred places' – and invest our financial assets there.
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"I hope that the blood of our young people will not be shed in vain anymore, and that our money will not be thrown into a bottomless pit anymore.
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"We need to be honest and tell our public that we were wrong. Wrong. We should not have done this. The later Hashemi [Rafsanjani] was adamant in his objection to our intervention and our defense [of Al-Assad]. Just like we have committed terrible mistakes in the issue of Palestine, our mistakes in the issue of Syria have also been terrible.
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"In any case, the [Iranian] regime has committed a terrible mistake, and it needs to apologize to the people. We must not whitewash this. My colleague here said that we had to defend such a man [Al-Assad]. No, we didn't. Why did we have to defend a ruthless dictator, whose terrible prisons are now being exposed? The argument that we needed to place our defenses somewhere else, so that we ourselves can be safe – this argument is immoral and contradicts our religion.
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"When we go down the street, we see men and women from our people going through garbage bins. Yet we take their money and give it to the whole world, saying that our responsibility lies elsewhere. Who gave you the right? This money belongs to these people. First you need to make sure that they are fed. Take care of their immediate needs.
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"The thing is that we ourselves played a role [in Syria]. We are the criminals. We are a party to the crime."
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Nabavi: "Would the $70 million [given to Hizbullah] solve [Iran's] problem? Would the problems of our country be solved by $200 million? We are talking about $50-70 billion to resolve the problems in our country."
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Soleimani-Ardestani: "An ant married an elephant. Then the elephant died. The ant was bawling. They asked her: Are you crying because you loved him so much? She said: No. 'So why are you crying so hard?' they asked her. She said: 'Because now I will have to spend my whole life digging his grave. Poor me.' Someone is going on adventures abroad, and the poor people [of Iran] are expected to agree to pay for what Israel has bombed.
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"You do not have the right to give away a single penny of the people's money. You are saying that the people do not have houses? What about schools? There are areas where the schools are... There are areas where people do not have drinking water. They have been denied the most basic things in life. You are saying it is only $70 million [that were given to Hizbullah]? That's true. 70 million plus 30 billion spent on the Assad regime equal 30 billion and 70 million.
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"You go and become martyrs in order to protect Bashar Al-Assad's harem. I don't want to go."
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Interviewer: "Are you congratulating the Syrians for the fall of Bashar Al-Assad, and the victory of the Syrian public?"
Nabavi: "I do not congratulate them, because the developments have only begun. There are takfiri movements, and there will be consequences."
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Soleimani-Ardestani: "I congratulate them from the bottom of my heart. They cannot hear me, but if they did, I would tell them that I have a recommendation for them: Seek one value, which is the most important value in the history of humanity – democracy. Do not let them take democracy away from you under any pretext. Do not repeat our mistake.
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"This is the only way. If you think that you can find a celestial leader, who will build your country, you are completely wrong. If you think that you can give someone absolute power, and your country will get along, you are completely wrong. The power should be in the hands of each and every one of you."
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