US economy contracts in Q1 '25    Golf Festival in Cairo to mark Arab Golf Federation's 50th anniversary    EGP closes high vs. USD on Wednesday    Germany's regional inflation ticks up in April    Taiwan GDP surges on tech demand    Germany among EU's priciest labour markets – official data    UNFPA Egypt, Bayer sign agreement to promote reproductive health    Egypt to boost marine protection with new tech partnership    Eygpt's El-Sherbiny directs new cities to brace for adverse weather    CBE governor meets Beijing delegation to discuss economic, financial cooperation    Egypt's investment authority GAFI hosts forum with China to link business, innovation leaders    Cabinet approves establishment of national medical tourism council to boost healthcare sector    Egypt's Gypto Pharma, US Dawa Pharmaceuticals sign strategic alliance    Egypt's Foreign Minister calls new Somali counterpart, reaffirms support    "5,000 Years of Civilizational Dialogue" theme for Korea-Egypt 30th anniversary event    Egypt's Al-Sisi, Angola's Lourenço discuss ties, African security in Cairo talks    Egypt's Al-Mashat urges lower borrowing costs, more debt swaps at UN forum    Two new recycling projects launched in Egypt with EGP 1.7bn investment    Egypt's ambassador to Palestine congratulates Al-Sheikh on new senior state role    Egypt pleads before ICJ over Israel's obligations in occupied Palestine    Sudan conflict, bilateral ties dominate talks between Al-Sisi, Al-Burhan in Cairo    Cairo's Madinaty and Katameya Dunes Golf Courses set to host 2025 Pan Arab Golf Championship from May 7-10    Egypt's Ministry of Health launches trachoma elimination campaign in 7 governorates    EHA explores strategic partnership with Türkiye's Modest Group    Between Women Filmmakers' Caravan opens 5th round of Film Consultancy Programme for Arab filmmakers    Fourth Cairo Photo Week set for May, expanding across 14 Downtown locations    Egypt's PM follows up on Julius Nyerere dam project in Tanzania    Ancient military commander's tomb unearthed in Ismailia    Egypt's FM inspects Julius Nyerere Dam project in Tanzania    Egypt's FM praises ties with Tanzania    Egypt to host global celebration for Grand Egyptian Museum opening on July 3    Ancient Egyptian royal tomb unearthed in Sohag    Egypt hosts World Aquatics Open Water Swimming World Cup in Somabay for 3rd consecutive year    Egyptian Minister praises Nile Basin consultations, voices GERD concerns    Paris Olympic gold '24 medals hit record value    A minute of silence for Egyptian sports    Russia says it's in sync with US, China, Pakistan on Taliban    It's a bit frustrating to draw at home: Real Madrid keeper after Villarreal game    Shoukry reviews with Guterres Egypt's efforts to achieve SDGs, promote human rights    Sudan says countries must cooperate on vaccines    Johnson & Johnson: Second shot boosts antibodies and protection against COVID-19    Egypt to tax bloggers, YouTubers    Egypt's FM asserts importance of stability in Libya, holding elections as scheduled    We mustn't lose touch: Muller after Bayern win in Bundesliga    Egypt records 36 new deaths from Covid-19, highest since mid June    Egypt sells $3 bln US-dollar dominated eurobonds    Gamal Hanafy's ceramic exhibition at Gezira Arts Centre is a must go    Italian Institute Director Davide Scalmani presents activities of the Cairo Institute for ITALIANA.IT platform    







Thank you for reporting!
This image will be automatically disabled when it gets reported by several people.



Iran involved?
Published in Al-Ahram Weekly on 09 - 02 - 2012

Has Iran been involved in the killing of protesters against the Syrian regime, asks Bassel Oudat in Damascus
Since the beginning of the protests against the regime led by Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad 10 months ago, Iran has declared its support for the Syrian regime and accused the protesters and opposition of being part of a Western conspiracy to bring down the "axis of resistance" against Israel, of which Syria is a cornerstone, along with Iran, the Lebanese Shia group Hizbullah and the Palestinian group Hamas.
Accusations of Iranian involvement in the Syrian crisis have been levelled by the US and the EU, as well as by Syrian opposition groups and protesters.
Supreme Guide of the Iranian revolution Ali Khamenei has described the Syrian uprising as being "a fake copy of the revolutions in Egypt, Tunisia, Yemen and Libya," and Ali Akbar Wilayati, senior Iranian adviser for international affairs, has said that "anyone who tries to overthrow the Syrian leadership is running after a mirage."
What was taking place in Syria was "an international conspiracy" against the country, supported by elements inside the country with funds and weapons from abroad, Wilayati said, insisting that Syria "is the golden link in the chain of the axis of the resistance" to Israel.
Although Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has described the events in Syria as "a domestic issue," he has nevertheless also said that instability in Syria "achieves the goals of the US, its allies and the Zionist regime" in Israel.
According to General Qasem Suleimani, leader of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards and close to Khamenei, "the supporters of the opposition in Syria have been unable to organise a million-man march against the government," seeming to forget that the Syrian military has cut off the country's towns and cities from each other, effectively preventing large-scale mobilisation.
At the end of last year, US reports said that the Iranian Al-Quds Corps, affiliated to the Revolutionary Guards, was supplying the Syrian regime with weapons for use against anti-regime protesters.
The Revolutionary Guards were quick to deny the reports, saying that events in Syria were a domestic matter in which Iran had not intervened. At the same time, however, the Guards said that they would uphold a defence treaty with Syria if the country was attacked.
In the early months of the Syrian uprising US officials accused Iran of sending advisers to Syria to assist the authorities in the crackdown against anti-regime protesters, alleging that the assistance included anti-riot and advanced surveillance equipment that would allow the Syrian authorities to track Facebook and Twitter users.
Five months ago, the European media reported that Khamenei had set aside $5.8 billion to help shore up the Syrian regime, with a first installment of $1.5 billion being paid to Damascus immediately, followed by installments over the next three months.
The reports said that Iran had provided the Syrian regime with 290,000 barrels of crude oil a day, later confirmed by former Syrian Vice President Abdel-Halim Khaddam, who said that Tehran had sent advisors to Damascus to help put down the demonstrations.
Meanwhile, Syrian protesters have said that Syrian security agencies have been using Iranian-made electric batons against the demonstrators. The snipers atop government buildings and high rises in Syria are Iranians, opposition sources say, though this has not been confirmed by evidence.
Lieutenant Ahmed Al-Khalaf, an early defector from the Syrian army killed in battle in the city of Homs, commented in August on the role played by Iran in the Syrian uprising. According to Al-Khalaf, "Iran views Alawite rule in Syria as an extension of its rule. There are Iranian experts with Iranian equipment on Syrian streets, whose mission is to find Thuraya communication equipment used by the protesters. I confirm that Iran has sent tear gas, bombs and electric batons to Syria for use against the protesters."
It is not only the West and the Syrian opposition that have accused Iran of actively supporting the Syrian regime, since the Iranian opposition has leveled the same accusations against Tehran.
The National Council for Iranian Resistance, an Iranian opposition group, has said that there has been coordination between the Iranian regime and Iraq to transport weapons, armed units and oil to Syria across the Iraqi-Syrian border.
On 2 February, the Syrian Revolutionary Leadership Council (RLC) in Idleb in the north of the country said that protesters in the city had detained six Iranian men near a children's refugee camp that security forces had converted into a barracks.
The RLC said that this revealed Iran's involvement in Syrian affairs and called on Iran to admit the presence of its soldiers in Syria to assist the Al-Assad regime in cracking down on the protesters. It called on all Iranian elements immediately to withdraw from Syrian territory.
For its part, Iran has denied that those arrested in February were soldiers, saying that they were Iranian visitors kidnapped in Syria while visiting a Shiite holy site. A Syrian army defector later denied the Iranian claims, saying that the military group was carrying passports without entry visas, residence stamps or work permits, while the civilian group mentioned by Iran had had passports with entry visas and residence and work permits.
On 27 January, the Al-Farouq Squadron of the Free Syrian Army (FSA) in the city of Homs announced that it was holding seven Iranians hostage, five of them members of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards.
The men had been arrested with their weapons while they were operating as snipers in the city, sources said. A second group of three men had been civilians working at the local power station, the FSA said, adding that it would release the civilians but would keep the military men prisoner until the Syrian authorities had halted military operations in Homs and released Hussein Harmoush, a leader of the FSA captured inside Turkey.
Iran has confirmed the detentions, claiming that all seven men were engineers working at the power station in Homs and that they were on their way to Damascus when they were captured by the FSA.
Earlier this week, the FSA in Idleb announced that it had captured four Iranians who confessed on television to being members of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard and said that they had taken part in the killing of Syrian protesters.
The Iranian consul-general in Damascus, Abdel-Meguid Kanjo, said that Iranian nationals in Syria had been kidnapped by armed groups aiming to "slander Iran by claiming it is interfering in Syria's domestic affairs." The Iranian foreign ministry called on all Iranians visiting Syria to travel by air rather than by land to avoid further kidnappings.
Despite Iran's support for the Syrian regime, the Iranian leadership has attempted to play multiple roles, supplying the regime with weapons, funds and expertise while at the same time reaching out to the Syrian opposition and twice inviting a delegation from the Coordination Committees of the Forces for Democratic Change, the opposition inside Syria, to visit Iran for consultations.
Meanwhile, the Syrian Muslim Brotherhood has revealed that Iran had approached the Brotherhood, offering it a share in a future national unity government on condition that al-Assad remains in power. The National Syrian Council, the opposition abroad, has rejected any contacts with Iran until it ends support for the Syrian regime.
Observers say that Syria has long played a key role in Iran's Middle East strategy, standing by Tehran during Iran's confrontation with the Iraq of former Iraqi president Saddam Hussein in contradiction to the prevailing Arab consensus that favoured Iraq.
They accuse Iran of now trying to return the favour by shoring up the Syrian regime, fearing that Syria could become a battleground between the FSA and the Iranian Revolutionary Guards should the Syrian regime be threatened with collapse.


Clic here to read the story from its source.