Iran is reported to have deployed significant forces, estimated at thousands of troops, to support the Assad regime’s offensive to retake areas controlled by Jaysh al Fateh in Hama and Aleppo. He served as chief of staff of its ground forces, was deputy commander of the Basij (a semi-military IRGC militia), senior advisor to the IRGC commander and commanded the IRGC in Greater Tehran (the Rassoulollah Corps).
Advertisement
A Washington-based analyst believes that the ISIS killing of a commander of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards served to underscore the extent of Iranian involvement in Syria and the dire straits in which Assad finds himself, according to CNN. Suleimani visited Moscow in July reportedly to make that point. “We need to discuss possible joint approaches to dealing with the various regional crises, particularly in Syria, with Iranian decision-makers as well”.
“While most attention seems to have been focused on Russian intervention in the last week or so in Syria”, he continued, “actually it is combined with a giant Iranian offensive that was planned months ago with the Russians-and that is unfolding”.
The meeting is organized by the Munich Security Conference and the Institute for Political and global Studies.
Russian Federation very likely coordinated its entry into the Syrian civil war with Iran and Soleimani. “This shows that they are sending soldiers to fight in Syria”. It emerged on Wednesday that two other senior members were killed this week: they were named as Farshad Hasonizadeh and Hamid Mokhtarband.
His account of Iranian troops arriving ties in with reports from Syrian opposition activists, who reported a troop buildup in the northern provinces of Idlib and Aleppo.
A short time after the revolution he was sent to fight the Kurdish separatists operating in northwestern Iran (as was Qasem Soleimani, today commander of the IRGC Qods Force). For example, in May 2014, in an exceptional statement, he said Iran had established a “second Hezbollah” in Syria and that the Basij operated “cultural centers” in 14 Syrian governates.
“It is no coincidence that three Iranian generals have been killed in just a week”, said Hokayem of the IISS.
Ali Akbar Velayati, a foreign policy adviser to Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, said this week that maintaining Assad in power remained as Tehran’s red line.
Advertisement
More than two weeks after the onset of Russia’s military campaign in Syria, it is becoming increasingly obvious that instead of triggering a “WWII-style” alliance against terrorism, as hoped for by Russia’s President Vladimir Putin in his recent United Nations speech, a new cold war featuring opposing camps clamoring for zones of influence in the fragmented Arab country is a more likely possibility.
