With Assad challenged, cutting Syria’s ties to Iran gets harder

For months, his country was battered by escalating Israeli bombardment while behind the scenes, the United States and Gulf countries courted him diplomatically. It was a secretive, two-pronged approach meant to pressure Syrian President Bashar al-Assad to abandon his most important regional alliance with Hezbollah and Iran.

The overtures to Assad were the product of what Israel and its allies saw as a rare but risky opportunity. With Iran’s regional network fracturing under Israeli attack, they hoped to force the Islamic Republic’s most important partner out of the alliance, according to former US officials, two European diplomats and four Israeli officials who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the subject.