Assad's third-mandate annoyed Iran: source

Reporting by Abdullah Raja; Translation by Yusra Ahmed

(Zaman Al Wasl)- Sources reported to Zaman al-Wasl that Bashar al-Assad’s nomination for presidency had been annoyed Iran as they suggested him to go for constitutional extension only till having an idea about the international and opposition attitude, besides the way things would have gone after Geneva2 conference.

Sources mentioned that Iran had given promises to the International Community and the United Nation that Assad would not have nominated himself for the presidency, as both Iran and Russia considered Assad’s nomination for presidency as a pressure card they can used in their negotiations with the international community.

 However, Assad let those two supporters down when he nominated himself to presidency, resulted in complicating the Syrian crisis more, because officially he would stay for another 7 years as a president.

The sources believes that Assad did know about the card Iran and Russia want to used in negotiations, however, his nomination shuffled cards and resulted in decreasing Iran's trust in him. Moreover, sources reported that political communication between Bashar and Iran fell down after presidency election, despite the official congratulation Rohani had given to Assad after winning.

Furthermore, sources revealed that Iran requested changing the Local Administration law into self-management law, where areas under opposition’s control could have self-management while the executive authority stays under the Local Authority, in the same time, the security and defending plans would follow the central authority in Damascus.

However, that request failed because of the complicated situation on ground in Syrian conflict, and the difficulties in openly communicating with the opposition to discuss those ideas. Zaman al-Wasl did not have enough information to confirm if those thoughts were discussed with Moaz al-Khatib during his visit to Tehran. Al-Khatib previously denied news Zaman al-Wasl published about his visit to Iran , and accused via a letter forwarded to the newspaper some parties close to regime circulation such news to mess things up.