'This is just a fundamental change in the equation of the entire Middle East,' Biden officials says

It is impossible not to place this week’s events in the context of the decisions US President Joe Biden made to fully back Israel against Iran and its proxy terrorist groups, including Hezbollah, and Ukraine against Russia, a senior administration official emphasized shortly after Biden addressed the nation from the White House about the fall of Bashar al-Assad’s regime in Syria.

A line can be drawn from the “fateful decisions” that the US and Iran made in the days after October 7 to today, according to the official.

“Think, if you just go back, for example, [to] the president’s Oval Office address to the American people on October 20, 2023, where he made the case to the American people to support these two close friends under attack,” the official said.

“They did not ask for” these wars, “and they did not start [them], but we were determined to support those friends in their hours of need, and we have done so.”

And the “results speak for themselves,” he added, saying Hamas’s leaders are dead, and Iran, Hezbollah, and Russia are on their backs.

Now, he said, the Assad regime – Russia and Iran’s main ally in the Middle East – has just collapsed.

US support shifts Middle East balance

“None of this, none of this would have been possible absent the direct support for Ukraine against Russia in their own defense provided by the United States of America and the direct defense of Israel against Iran, as the president noted, and the relentless pressure that has been applied,” the official said.

He added that Iran has effectively lost its main proxy group, has no strategic air defenses, and cannot produce missiles because of the attacks that Israel conducted about a month ago.

“So this is just a fundamental change in the equation of the entire Middle East,” he said. “I think it is something that will affect Iranian calculations, whether that is in the direction of diplomacy, obviously, we’ll have to see.”

During the momentous events over the last two weeks, from the Lebanon ceasefire now to the fall of Assad, the official said the administration is also working “assiduously” on the Gaza conflict, a ceasefire, and the release of hostages.

“We do believe there is a path here, given the dramatically changed balance of power in the region that the president spoke to today.

“A path here to a Middle East that is far more stable, far more aligned with our interests, and far more aligned with the interests of the people of the Middle East who want to live in peace, without wars, and prosperity in a region that is more integrated and prosperous and peaceful,” the official said. “So that is something we continue to work on.”