Showing posts with label Iran-Syria Alliance. Show all posts

Friday, November 22, 2013

THE PROOF: Iranian Soldiers Running The Show In Syria - Business Insider

by Michael Kelley

We already knew that Iran had troops on the ground in Syria last summer and the Islamic Republic is calling the shots, but new footage recorded by a cameraman attached to the elite Quds Force of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards details just how much Iran is invested in the civil war.

"If Assad falls, Iran's foreign policy objectives would be constrained. So it's doing everything it can to keep Assad in power, " Mark Fitzpatrick of the International Institute for Strategic Studies told BBC, which did an investigation based on the footage.....(CONTINUED)

FULL ARTICLE W/VIDEO HERE:
Iranian Soldiers Running The Show In Syria - Business Insider

Thursday, October 31, 2013

CBS: Iran caught in lie about involvement in Syrian civil war - YouTube

LINK: CBS: Iran caught in lie about involvement in Syrian civil war - YouTube

Friday, September 13, 2013

NO SURPRISE HERE: BBC News - Footage emerges of 'Iranians fighting in Syria'

The Syrian opposition has been saying for many months that Iranian forces are backing up, even leading the Syrian Army. This is just further colloboration:
VIDEO LINK: BBC News - Footage emerges of 'Iranians fighting in Syria'

Sunday, May 26, 2013

MUST-READ: Iranian_Strategy_in_Syria.pdf

Inter Press Service News Agency

Iranian President Ahmadinejad, Syrian President Assad, and Hezbollah's Nasrallah appear together on a poster in Damascus, Syria.

The Islamic Republic of Iran has conducted an extensive, expensive, and integrated effort to keep President Bashar al-Assad in power as long as possible while setting conditions to retain its ability to use Syrian territory and assets to pursue its regional interests should Assad fall.

The Iranian security and intelligence services are advising and assisting the Syrian military in order to preserve Bashar al-Assad’s hold on power. These efforts have evolved into an expeditionary training mission using Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) Ground Forces, Quds Force, intelligence services, and law enforcement forces. The deployment of IRGC Ground Forces to conflict abroad is a notable expansion of Iran’s willingness and ability to project military force beyond its borders.

Iran has been providing essential military supplies to Assad, primarily by air. Opposition gains in Syria have interdicted many ground resupply routes between Baghdad and Damascus, and the relative paucity of Iranian port-visits in Syria suggests that Iran’s sea-lanes to Syria are more symbolic than practical. The air line of communication between Iran and Syria is thus a key vulnerability for Iranian strategy in Syria. Iran would not be able to maintain its current level of support to Assad if this air route were interdicted through a no-fly zone or rebel capture of Syrian airfields...........

FULL 43-PAGE PDF LINK: Iranian_Strategy_in_Syria.pdf

Thursday, April 4, 2013

Iranian soldiers are fighting alongside Assad army: captured soldier tells Al Arabiya - Alarabiya.net English | Front Page

Al Arabiya -

A man, who is reportedly an Iranian officer in the custody of the rebel Free Syrian Army, spoke to Al Arabiya Thursday and said he used to train snipers for the regime of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.

He said that he used to train the men in the western province of Idlib, in which – he added – he stayed for months.

“My name is Hamid Wothouq, amd I’m from Shiraz city. I stayed in al-Fouaa and Kafriya for five month to work with snipers. In Iran, I worked for the Basij [Iranian paramilitary organization]. I want help from the Islamic republic,” he told Al Arabiya’s cameras.

Wothouq allegedly entered Syria from Turkey and said there were Iranian soldiers spread in the country to help the Assad regime in fighting rebels.

FULL ARTICLE W/VIDEO: Iranian soldiers are fighting alongside Assad army: captured soldier tells Al Arabiya - Alarabiya.net English | Front Page

Saturday, March 30, 2013

Ship carrying Iran weapons for Assad regime en route to Syria: opposition source - Alarabiya.net English | Front Page

Vessel heading to Turkey is suspected to make a stop at Syrian port to unload Iranian weapons. (AFP)

Al Arabiya, Dubai -

A ship raising a Tanzanian flag and carrying Iranian arms cargo is expected to cross the Suez Canal within six hours, an opposition source told Al Arabiya Saturday.

‘The ship is said to be carrying 8,500 tons of weapons and ground missiles from Iran to be given to the Syrian regime,’ the source said, adding: ‘It is scheduled to make a 'fuel stop' at a Syrian port where it will unload its cargo.’..............

FULL ARTICLE HERE: Ship carrying Iran weapons for Assad regime en route to Syria: opposition source - Alarabiya.net English | Front Page

Thursday, March 14, 2013

Iran and Hezbollah 'have built 50,000-strong force to help Syrian regime' | World news | guardian.co.uk

Syrian rebels taking on the Assad-Iran-Hezbollah-Moscow Alliance

Iran and Hezbollah have built a 50,000-strong parallel force in Syria to help prolong the life of the Assad regime and to maintain their influence after his fall, Israel's military intelligence chief has claimed.

Major General Aviv Kochavi said Iran intended to double the size of this Syrian "people's army", which he claimed was being trained by Hezbollah fighters and funded by Tehran, to bolster a depleted and demoralised Syrian army.

Kochavi, the director of military intelligence in the Israel defence forces (IDF), also said Assad's troops had readied chemical weapons but so far had not been given the order for them to be used.....

FULL ARTICLE: Iran and Hezbollah 'have built 50,000-strong force to help Syrian regime' | World news | guardian.co.uk

Death Merchant Iran steps up weapons lifeline to Syria’s Assad: diplomats - Alarabiya.net English | Front Page

Iran has significantly stepped up military support to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad in recent months. (Reuters)

Reuters, United Nations - Iran has significantly stepped up military support to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad in recent months, solidifying its position alongside Russia asthe government's lifeline in an increasingly sectarian civilwar, Western diplomats said.

Iranian weapons continue to pour into Syria from Iraq butalso increasingly along other routes, including via Turkey and Lebanon, in violation of a U.N. arms embargo on Iran, Western officials told Reuters on condition of anonymity. Iraqi and Turkish officials denied the allegations.

Iran’s acceleration of support for Assad suggests the Syrian war is entering a new phase in which Iran may be trying to end the battlefield stale mate by redoubling its commitment to Assadand offering Syria’s increasingly isolated government a crucial lifeline, the envoys said...........

FULL ARTICLE: Iran steps up weapons lifeline to Syria’s Assad: diplomats - Alarabiya.net English | Front Page

Friday, February 15, 2013

Not even the Nazis did what Assad's doing, says ex-Syrian PM | The Times of Israel

Syrians who fled their homes with their families gather around a fire to warm themselves at a makeshift vegetable store in a camp for displaced persons in the village of Atmeh, Syria in December. (photo credit: AP/Muhammed Muheisen)

The former prime minister of Syria delivered a harsh critique of the country’s president during an interview with al-Arabiya Friday, claiming that “not even the Nazis did what Bashar Assad’s doing in Syria.”

Riad Hijab, who defected from his post in Damascus six months ago, also told the Arabic-language news outlet that Iran is “actively running” Syria.

“Syria is occupied by the Iranian regime,” he said. “Who runs the country isn’t Bashar Assad but Kassem Suleimani, the head of Iran’s al-Quds Brigades [within the Revolutionary Guards].”.............

FULL ARTICLE HERE: Not even the Nazis did what Assad's doing, says ex-Syrian PM | The Times of Israel

OK KERRY, TIME FOR ACTION, NOT NEVILLE CHAMBERLAIN WORDS: Kerry says 90,000 killed in Syria | The Times of Israel

Assad and his pals, Iran, Putin and Hezbollah play deadly hardball. They are the equivalent of Mafia thugs trying to shore up Assad's tower of villainy each for cynical geopolitical reasons, among many other sleazy motives. So far in reacting to this however, for the last two years the White House has been playing whiffleball, and we see the horrific result.

Kerry, now it is on your back and conscience to take strong action to stop these crimes against humanity. If Obama won't let you, walk away from him. Otherwise, be part of the same type legacy as the one that haunts Clinton on Rwanda. - Mac McKinney

********

Kerry says 90,000 killed in Syria

Figure, cited by Saudi foreign minister, is well beyond 70,000 estimated by UN human rights chief earlier this week

By Philip Podolsky and AP February 14, 2013, 11:24 pm

Mourners walk past open graves at a cemetery during a funeral for four people killed in a raid by government forces in a neighborhood of Damascus, Syria, April 7, 2012 (photo credit: AP)

After nearly two years of fighting, the death toll in Syria has reached some 90,000 people, US Secretary of State John Kerry said on Thursday.

“I had occasion … to speak this morning with the foreign minister of Saudi Arabia. The first thing he mentioned to me was in his estimate perhaps as many as 90,000 people have been killed in Syria,” Kerry was quoted by AFP as saying.

The figure is well beyond that quoted by UN human rights chief Navi Pillay, who said Tuesday the number of people killed in Syria’s civil war is probably approaching 70,000. She told the UN Security Council that there have probably been almost 10,000 new deaths in recent weeks...........

FULL ARTICLE HERE: Kerry says 90,000 killed in Syria | The Times of Israel