I'm John Betts who is my colleague Jonathan Shanzer, the executive director of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies.

All eyes on Tehran, yes.

And the rest of the cities in Iran are at various stages of revolt.

Some are holding back, wondering if we're bringing back the dynasty and the Savak of the 1970s.

Others have broken away entirely from the Iranian hold, and one

would be Syria, but Jonathan, fighting in Aleppo between the regime and the Kurds, these are two

what are called generally anti-terrorist allies of the United States. And the central

government has issued orders to their so-called Syrian National Army to attack the Kurds who are

invited to join the Syrian National Army. Does this make any logical sense? It doesn't make any sense in the way that you framed it,

John. What I would only note here is that the regime of Ahmed al-Shara, also known as Abu

Muhammad al-Jolani, is very fragile. This is a regime that is getting support from the West,

from the Europeans, from the Turks, and from a handful of others,

in the hope that it pulls out in one piece, that it remains in power when all is said and done.

But from everything that we're hearing right now, the factional differences, the sectarian differences,

the long memories of those fought during the Syrian Civil War, which broke

out 14, 15 years ago, this is something that people are not willing to forget. They're not willing

to forgive. And so the various factions have long memories and have a sense of wanting retribution.

And that's what's happening right now, John.

You're seeing different factions probing for weakness,

trying to figure out whether there are ways that they can circumvent the new central government.

As I understand it right now, John, the central government does not really extend past Damascus.

And when you talk about cities like Palmyra, it just does not hold the same power.

...