US official: Iran weakened by events in Syria, improving chance for Gaza hostage deal

A senior Biden administration official suggests that the Syrian rebels’ overthrow of President Bashar al-Assad improves chances to secure a ceasefire and hostage release deal in Gaza.

In a briefing with reporters, the senior US official says the developments in Syria “dramatically changed the balance of power” in the region, referring to the weakening of Iran and its proxies.

Accordingly, the US is intensifying efforts to secure a hostage deal, the official says.

The US has several times over the past year speculated that various developments in the region — including Israel’s killing of Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar and a ceasefire in Lebanon — opened windows to secure a hostage deal. However, negotiations have yet to bear fruit.

Hamas has refused to budge from its demands for a permanent end to the war and withdrawal of Israeli troops from Gaza in exchange for releasing the remaining 100 hostages, and Israel is insisting that it will only agree to temporary ceasefires along with one that allows it to initially maintain a troop presence in Gaza.

Regardless, the overthrow of Assad has created a new balance of power in Syria that is “far more aligned with American interests,” the US official says.

The senior US official says Iran bucked President Biden’s warning not to take advantage of Hamas’s October 7 onslaught to further target Israel through its proxies, and has ended up paying a massive price for that decision.

Israeli counterattacks against Iran and its proxies led to the near dismantlement of Tehran’s main proxy Hezbollah, and the dismantlement of its missile program, the official says.

The “fundamental change” will impact Iran’s calculations, the Biden official speculates, while warning again that the US will not allow Iran to obtain a nuclear weapon.

The Biden administration has had good conversations with the Trump transition team on this topic, with both sides seeing eye to eye on it, the official says.

The US supports Israel’s freedom of action against Iranian networks in Syria following the fall of the Assad regime, the senior Biden administration official tells reporters.

The official adds that the US will support allies Israel, Jordan, Iraq, and Lebanon against threats from Syria.