Syrian President Bashar Assad has been rather reclusive in the past few weeks, but met with Iran’s Supreme National Security Council, Saeed Jalili on State television to show their solidarity even as the U.S. secretary of state urged stepped up international plans for the regime’s collapse.

Assad’s television appearance assured the viewers that even though the rebels killed four of his top security officials in Damascus, he used Jalili’s visit to portray a sense of command and vowed to “relentlessly” fight his opponents.

Iran’s Supreme National Security Council Representative, Saeed Jalili, promised Iran would stand by Syria against its international “enemies,” such as Israel, U.S., Saudi Arabia and Qatar.

A post-Assad Syria presents many troublesome scenarios, including a bloody cycle of revenge and power grabs by the country’s patchwork of terrorist factions. They include the Sunni-led rebels and Assad’s minority Alawite community, an offshoot of Shiite Islam and part of its close bonds with Shiite power Iran.

“I am not going to put a timeline on it. I can’t possibly predict it, but I know it’s going to happen as do most observers around the world,” Clinton told reporters. Syria is bound to fall and there needs to be a “good transition plan” put into effect to keep Syria from collapsing into more chaos after Assad. A growing humanitarian crisis is already taking hold.

More than 1,300 Syrians have fled to Turkey this week, as rebels tried to expand their hold inside Aleppo, Syria’s largest city. Close to 48,000 Syrians have already taken shelter in Turkey and even more refugees have crossed into Jordan and Lebanon.

19,000 people have died in this uprising that lead to civil war in Syria.

A growing humanitarian crisis is already taking hold.