Hezbollah’s Presence in Syria Was Not Iran’s Decision

Roozonline - Zarif Ridiculed Accusations of Iran’s Assistance to Assad’s Opposition Iran’s foreign minister Mohammad Javad Zarif denied that Hezbollah’s presence in Syria to prop-up the regime of Bashar Assad was at the instigation of Tehran. The decision was Hezbollah’s, according to him.

Iran’s Fars news agency, which is closely associated with the country’s militant Revolutionary Guards, wrote in a piece that speaking to reporters from al-Arabie television during the World Economic Forum in Davos gathering in Switzerland, Zarif called reports that Iran had provided assistance to the extremist groups fighting Assad’s regime as “ridiculous.”

In response to the question about whether Assad would have survived the Syrian people’s uprising without Tehran’s support, Zarif said, “Of course he would. Nobody can stay in power unless he has domestic legitimacy.”

During the panel discussion, Zarif also called on for “all foreign elements” to leave Syria and an end to the “supply of weapons and money” so that the people of Syria would “determine their own future.”

Western countries view Iran to be militarily involved in support of Syrian president Assad, in addition to providing economic support to Damascus.

Iran’s effective influence and presence in Syria resulted this month in UN Secretary General’s extension of an invitation to Tehran to participate in the Geneva conference to discuss the situation in Syria and get the Syrian regime and its opposition talking to find a negotiated settlement out of the crisis. Ban ki Moon withdrew his invitation the next day after Iran publicly announced that it did not recognize the precondition for participation which was that a successor to Assad had to be discussed. Syrian opposition groups issued a warning after Ban ki Moon’s invitation that they would not participate if Iran which did not agree with the removal of Assad was present.

Iranian media have been stressing in recent days that Iran’s absence is the Geneva II gathering is not worrisome because this issue continues to be the main discussion on the sidelines of the conference.

The Islamic republic of Iran is among the staunchest supporters of Bashar Assad’s regime. Various reports have been published indicating the presence of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards in Syria. The top commander of the force, Aziz Jaafari, had also confirmed such a presence during a press conference when he said, “Everybody knows that the Guards have a unit called Nehzathaye Islami (Islamic Movements) which had been created for the purpose of supporting the downtrodden and the export of the Islamic revolution, upon which it acts. Since the time when the Ghods force was created, its goal has been to support the downtrodden, particularly Muslims. A number from the Ghods force are present in Syria but this does not constitute our military presence in that country.”

Ghods force is a special sub-division of the 5-forces of Iran’s revolutionary Guards force (commonly known as the IRGC) which is responsible for external military operations. The force was created during the 8-year Iran-Iraq war and its goal then was to conduct military operations inside Iraq. It is reported that the force has about 15,000 members and its current top commander is general Ghasem Soleymani.

General Ismail Fani, Soleymani’s deputy in the Ghods force, told Iran’s ISNA student news agency last May/June, “When we were not in Syria, the number of killings of people by opponents in Syria was large but such killings have stopped since the physical and non-physical presence of the Islamic republic in Syria.”

Last year there were also non-confirmed reports about trips to Syria by Haj Mohammad Fard, a close associate of Soleymani who is recognized as a senior commander in the Ghods force. According to these reports, Mohammad Fard had been sent to Syria with the coordination of Asef Showkat, Bashar Assad’s sister’s husband, and Maher Assad (Bashar’s brother) to discuss ways to fight the opposition and prevent the fall of Assad’s regime. It has also been reported that Mohammad Fard had extensive military activities in the 1980s in Lebanon, during that country’s civil war.

The Islamic republic of Iran’s support for Bashar Assad and the coverage of the official Iranian press of the Syrian conflict has brought criticism inside Iran. For example, Asre Iran website which is close to the hardline principlists, recently published a report in which it criticized Iran’s policy towards Assad and said it was like being more Catholic than the Pope. “Some national media still believe that people have no news options or that if they lie by writing that Damascus is quiet, opposition groups will abandon their struggle by reading such news and the whole episode will happily end,” it wrote.

Since the convening of Geneva II on Syria and Iran’s absence in it, some newspapers in Iran criticized Tehran’s policy and said Iran should have recognized the decisions of the previous conference on Syria which would have provided diplomatic options to achieve its ends.

by Hossein Mohammadi