TEHRAN: Iran’s supreme leader said Tuesday that Israel and the United States were “completely wrong” to imagine the Tehran-backed axis of resistance had collapsed with the ouster of Syria’s longtime strongman.

“With the developments in Syria and the crimes the Zionist regime is committing and the crimes that America is committing, and the help that some others are giving to them, they thought that the resistance was over,” Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said in a televised speech.

“They are completely wrong.”

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On December 8, Syrian president Bashar al-Assad fled the country as rebel forces entered the capital Damascus after a lightning offensive.

Since Assad’s fall, Iran has sought to distance itself from the ousted leader, instead emphasising the history of friendship between the two countries.

Khamenei has also insisted that Assad’s overthrow will not weaken Iran.

“The Zionist regime imagines it can encircle and eradicate the Hezbollah forces through Syria, but the one who will be eradicated is Israel,” Khamenei said on Tuesday.