Iran and Russia are jointly responsible for the crimes committed against the Syrian people, NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte said today, a day after Bashar al-Assad was toppled.

“Russia and Iran were the main supporters of the Assad regime and are jointly responsible for the crimes committed against the Syrian peopleRutte said in a statement.

“They also proved themselves to be unreliable partners, abandoning Assad when he was no longer useful to them“, Rutte further emphasized.

Later, in a post on Platform X, Rutte informed that he spoke with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan about “the issue of Syria”, without going into further details.

Turkey is one of the main backers of the Islamist rebels who toppled Assad.

The fall of President Assad is “a moment of joy but also of uncertainty for the people of Syria and the region”, the head of NATO also underlined in the announcement, adding that the Atlantic Alliance “will closely monitor how the rebel leaders behave during of the (political) transition” in Syria.

“They must support the rule of law, the protection of civilians and respect for religious minorities“, he stated.

Rutte did not comment on what will be done with the Islamic State group’s fighters, who still have a presence in Syria. But during a meeting of foreign ministers of the 32 NATO countries, US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken warned last week of a possible resurgence of ISIS in Syria.

“We have permanent interests, security interests that continue to exist in Syria, primarily the interest in making sure that the Islamic State does not revive and return“, he said on Wednesday in Brussels.

The Atlantic Alliance’s geographic area does not cover Syria, but a NATO mission has been active in Iraq since 2018.