BEIRUT: The leader of the Syrian National Council has warned Iran against protecting President Bashar Assad and accused Lebanon’s Hezbollah of letting down the Syrian opposition.

Iran is "participating in suppressing the Syrian people" by backing Assad, Burhan Ghalioun told CNN in an interview Tuesday.

The Assad family, which has ruled over Syria for four decades, has been a longtime ally of the Islamic Republic.

Ghalioun, who was elected chairman of the SNC in late August, also warned that the crackdown could lead to international military intervention.

"I hope that the Iranians realize the importance of not compromising the Syrian-Iranian relationship by defending a regime whose own people clearly reject it and has become a regime of torture to its own people," Ghalioun told the U.S. broadcaster.

He said Iran needed to understand "that this is the last chance to avoid an unwanted fate to the Syrian-Iranian relationship."

Turning to Hezbollah, Iran’s primary ally in Lebanon, Ghalioun said the Syrian opposition had been let down by the resistance group.

"The Syrian people stood completely by Hezbollah once. But today, they are surprised that Hezbollah did not return the favor and support the Syrian people’s struggle for freedom,” he said.

Last week the Wall Street Journal published an interview with Ghalioun in which he said “our relations with Iran will be revisited as [will those of] any of the countries in the region, based on the exchange of economic and diplomatic interests, in the context of improving stability in the region and not that of a special relationship. There will be no special relationship with Iran.”

He also said breaking the exceptional relationship with Iran after the fall of the Syrian regime would change its relationship with Hezbollah.