The Iran-backed Syrian regime of Bashar al-Assad held parliamentary elections in areas under its control on Wednesday, a move that Western nations and the Syrian opposition said undermined negotiations for a political solution to the conflict and will likely result in a rubber-stamp legislature in favor of Assad.

U.S. State Department deputy spokesman Mark Toner said on Monday that the elections would be “at best premature and not representative of the Syrian people.” Asaad al-Zoubi, chief negotiator for the High Negotiations Council, the main opposition body, called the elections “illegitimate,” while France described them as a “sham” organized by “an oppressive regime.”

Although United Nations Security Council resolution 2254 calls for the establishment of a transitional government in Syria, the regime has ruled out the possibility of Assad’s departure, while a top adviser to Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei reiterated on Sunday that Assad’s removal from power is a “red line” for Tehran. In addition to Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps officials, Hezbollah forces, and Iraqi Shiite militias, the Iranian regime recently deployed Iranian special forces to Syria to further assist Assad. Russia’s bombing campaign has also bolstered Assad’s position, as well as his confidence and ambitions. A recent analysis in The New York Times described Assad as “the ultimate survivor” whose savvy regime refuses to compromise, excels at stalling, and relies on both Iran, its “insurance card,” and Russia for support.

According to the State Department, the Assad regime has perpetrated the vast majority of the violations of a cessation of hostilities between Syrian forces, its allies, and main opposition groups, which was instituted in February and has recently come under severe strain. A few days before peace talks resumed on Wednesday, the Syrian prime minister announced that the Assad regime, with Russian support, is preparing an offensive to retake Aleppo from the rebels. Regime forces, backed by Russian planes, launched a major offensive on parts of northern Aleppo on Thursday, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

A recent investigative report published in The New Yorker, entitled “The Assad Files,” chronicles the efforts of the Commission for International Justice and Accountability, an independent investigative body, to capture top-secret documents that prove the Assad regime’s systematic torture and murder of detainees, evidence which the organization hopes could one day be used to convict Assad and his associates of crimes against humanity. Several analysts, including President Barack Obama’s former advisor for transition in Syria, Frederic Hof, and a research fellow at the Henry Jackson Society, Kyle Orton, have argued that the U.S. priority of avoiding friction with Iran has prevented efforts to protect Syrian civilians and hold the Assad regime accountable for its crimes.

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