While continuing to provide military and intelligence assistance to the Syrian state, Tehran has also pursued a compromise. It is prepared to accept an exit for al Assad and his closest associates provided the rest of the regime remained intact, with the tacit assumption that the regime will maintain the same pro-Iranian foreign policy orientation. To this end, Iran has been trying to coordinate with Syria's Alawite elite as well as Russia and China and reach out to Arab Sunnis and their supporters, including Turkey. This represents the least overtly belligerent of all Iran's options, but it has been rejected outright by the United States and its allies Saudi Arabia, Turkey and Qatar.