Syrian President Bashar Assad denied that military ally Russia was making decisions for him, but said it was natural for there to be differences of opinion between allies, in an interview published on Sunday by state media.
In an interview with British newspaper the Mail on Sunday, carried in full by Syrian state news agency SANA, Assad was responding to a question about whether Moscow now controls Syria's diplomatic and military moves.
"They [the Russians] never, during our relation, try to dictate, even if there are differences," he said, according to SANA's transcript of the interview, given in English.
"It's natural to have differences between the different parties, whether within our government or other governments; Russia-Syria, Syria-Iran, Iran-Russia, and within these governments, that's very natural, but at the end, the only decision about what's going on in Syria and what's going to happen, it's a Syrian decision," Assad said.
Iranian and Russian support has been critical to Assad's war effort over the last several years, but the different agendas of Assad's allies in Syria have become more apparent recently as Israel presses Russia to make sure Iran and its allies do not entrench their military sway in the country.
On Tuesday, Reuters reported that a Russian troop deployment in Syria near the Lebanese border had caused friction with Iran-backed forces, in what appeared to be a rare case of Russia acting out of sync with Assad's Iran-backed allies.
Recent Russian calls for all non-Syrian forces to leave southern Syria have been seen as aimed partly at Iran, in addition to U.S. forces based in the Tanf area at the Syrian-Iraqi border.
In the interview, Assad also said he expects the war in his country to be over in "less than a year" and re-stated his aim to take back "every inch" of Syria.
He said the involvement of foreign powers such as Britain, the United States and France was prolonging the conflict and had slowed down a resolution to the situation in rebel-held areas of southwestern Syria.
In recent months, the Syrian government and allied forces have taken back the last besieged opposition area in Syria, north of Homs, and crushed the last rebel pockets near the capital.
Damascus has now set its sights on the opposition-held parts of southwestern Syria which border Israel and Jordan.
"We were about to achieve reconciliation in the southern part of Syria only two weeks ago, but the West interfered and asked the terrorists not to follow this path in order to prolong the Syrian conflict," Assad said. The Syrian government refers to all groups opposed to its rule as terrorists.
The United States wants to preserve a "de-escalation" zone agreed last year with Russia and Jordan that has contained fighting in that area. Assad wants to bring the area back under state control.
Last month, in a meeting with Assad in the Russian resort town of Sochi, Russian President Vladimir Putin noted that a political settlement in Syria should encourage foreign countries to withdraw their troops.
Putin's envoy to Syria, Alexander Lavrentiev, later commented that the Russian leader's statement was aimed at the United States and Turkey, along with Iran and Hezbollah. It marked a rare instance in which Moscow suggested Iran should not maintain a permanent military presence in the country.
U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo issued a list of demands last month for a new nuclear deal with Iran, including the pullout of its forces from Syria. Israel has also warned it will not accept a permanent Iranian military presence in Syria.
Syrian Deputy Foreign Minister Faisal Mikdad, however, has told Russia's Sputnik news agency that "this topic is not even on the agenda of discussion, since it concerns the sovereignty of Syria."
A top Iranian security official said that Tehran will maintain an advisory role in Syria and continue to support "resistance groups."
The secretary of Iran's Supreme National Security Council, Ali Shamkhani, meanwhile told the Al Jazeera TV network that as long as Syria faces a "terrorist" threat and Damascus requests its presence, "we will stay in Syria."
In a televised speech on Friday, Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah said that "if the whole world tried to impose on us a withdrawal from Syria, they will not be able to make us leave," adding that his group would only leave at the request of the Syrian government.
In his speech, Nasrallah mocked the idea that U.S., Israeli or Gulf pressure was forcing a wedge between Russia and Iran on Syria.
Israel has repeatedly struck Hezbollah and Iranian targets in Syria, saying they must leave the country, with which it shares a border. Washington has also demanded that Iran and forces it back quit.
Fawaz Gerges, professor of Middle Eastern politics at the London School of Economics, said there was increasing evidence that Russia has "turned a blind eye to Israel's airstrike in Syria against Iran's military presence. This is a direct message that Russia does not want Iran to have a hegemonic position in Syria."
Russia and Iran have been Assad's main backers, but Moscow also maintains close relations with Israel. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu visited Russia several times over the past two years.
Russia has reportedly been mediating for Iranian troops and Hezbollah fighters to withdraw from areas close to the Israeli border where Syrian troops are expected to launch an offensive against rebels.
"What happens after is not Russia's problem," said Maxim Suchkov, a member of the Russian International Affairs Council who also edits Russia-Middle East coverage at online news website Al-Monitor. "Iran will fight Israel for centuries. Netanyahu won't be satisfied with Iran's exit from southwest Syria. He needs an Iran-free Syria, which is impossible now or ever. Neither Russia, nor anyone can ensure that."
Since September 2015, Assad's forces have been making strong gains on the ground against insurgents thanks to Russian air cover and ground forces comprised largely of Iranian-backed fighters from Lebanon, Iraq and Afghanistan. Assad now controls more than half of Syria's territories, including the four largest cities.
Russian troops don't appear to be leaving Syria, home to their only naval base outside the former Soviet Union, any time soon. The Russian parliament voted in December to extend Russia's lease on the naval base in the Syrian city of Tartus for 49 years, following Putin's announcement of a partial pullout of Russian troops from the war-torn country.
"In the past three years, Russian and Iranian influence converged in Syria. They wanted to rescue the Assad regime," Gerges said. "Now that we are witnessing the beginning of the end of the military phase, we are witnessing divergence of interests between Russia and Iran."
