For Iran’s theocratic government, it keeps getting worse. Its decadeslong strategy of building an “Axis of Resistance” supporting militant groups and proxies around the region is falling apart.

After the routing by Israel of Hamas and Hizbullah, its two main proxies in the region, the fall of Mr Assad, its third, is a further sign of Iran’s waning influence. Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, likes to say that his country is nearing its ghaleh, or zenith. But he must wonder whether it is already behind him.

Assad, Iran has started to distance itself from their longtime alliance, instead stressing the history of friendship between the two countries.Rebels advanced from their stronghold in the northwestern city of Idlib to the capital Damascus in less than two weeks,