“We have Iranian officers who work with the Syrian army as help,” he said. “As long as necessary and as long as terrorism exists there and the Syrian government wants us to do this, Iran will maintain its presence in Syria and will offer its contribution to the Syrian government,” said Bahram Qassemi, the spokesman for Iran’s foreign ministry, according to the BBC.Īssad said in a Russian TV interview this week that there have never been Iranian troops inside Syria. Iran insists it is in Syria at the behest of Damascus and will only leave at its request. The one who has control of the ground doesn’t take seriously those who don’t.” The ground is very important, and Iran is very skillful at managing the ground - the one area where even Russians are weak. “It gives Iran good leverage against Israel. “I don’t think Iran is willing to abandon its presence in Syria,” said the editor of a leading Tehran news outlet, who spoke to Foreign Policy on condition of anonymity. Having already made such a massive investment, Iran is determined to reap the potential long-term strategic rewards Syria has to offer - even if it comes at the expense of more lives and money in the short term. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo listed Iran’s withdrawal from Syria as one of 12 preconditions for removing sanctions after the Trump administration withdrew from the nuclear deal last month.īut Iranian officials and other experts say the country has invested too much blood and treasure - upwards of $30 billion to date - to fold to international demands, regardless of Israeli airstrikes, or even Moscow’s pressure. Israel is pressing Russia, the main powerbroker in Syria, and other international players to get Iran to leave Syria, threatening more strikes on Iranian positions near its border at the Golan Heights or anywhere inside the country should it remain. Rezai’s death added to the more than 2,000 Iranian military deaths in Syria since Tehran began pouring troops and tremendous amounts of resources into the country to defend the regime of Bashar al-Assad from an armed uprising. “It offends me when people ask, ‘Why didn’t you stand in his way?’” she said, according to an account in the hard-line Mashregh News. At Rezai’s late April burial service, his weeping mother said there was no stopping him from volunteering to fight in Syria. He was a 30-year-old native of the capital, Tehran, a pious young man whose father had also been a soldier and who left behind an infant daughter. Hamid Rezai was among the latest batch of soldiers to die for Iran in Syria, killed by an alleged Israeli rocket attack on the T4 airbase near Homs.
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