Iran has long declared its support for the Syrian regime, but is it also supplying it with arms? asks Bassel Oudat The Atlantic Cruiser, sailing under the Antiguan flag and owned by the German company Bockstiegel, raised concerns among Arab and European countries when it left the Suez Canal 10 days ago for the Syrian port of Tartus carrying what were described as "hazardous goods" loaded from an Iranian vessel in the port of Djibouti. Sources in the Free Syrian Army (FSA), which includes defectors from the Syrian regular army, say that the vessel is carrying weapons. The FSA has warned that the ship will be targeted if it enters Syrian territorial waters. According to the German media, the company that owns the ship has said that its cargo is the responsibility of the Ukrainian company that chartered it. Meanwhile, the German government has launched an inquiry, and the UN has asked the vessel to change course and head to the Turkish port of Iskenderun for inspection. While the Atlantic Cruiser may or may not be carrying weapons, the incident has stirred up the possibility that Iran has been supplying weapons to the Syrian regime in order to assist it in suppressing protests and killing and wounding protesters. Since the beginning of the Syrian uprising nearly 14 months ago, the country's opposition and Western countries have been accusing Iran of supplying the Syrian regime with weapons and military experts to help it suppress the demonstrations. They have also accused Tehran of intervening in the Syrian crisis through its unwavering support for the regime, frustrating efforts to find a peaceful solution. Although it supports the regime led by Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad, Iran has also been in contact with the country's opposition, including the Muslim Brotherhood, even receiving delegations from the opposition inside the country while trying to find a solution to the crisis that will keep Al-Assad in power. "The Iranian role in the Syrian crisis is different from the Russian one," Bashar Al-Eissa, a member of the opposition, told Al-Ahram Weekly. "The relationship between Tehran and Damascus is a close one, and Iran has exacerbated the problems in Syria over the past 30 years." "The Iranian regime cannot be part of the solution because its religious doctrine is Shiite. There can be no solution in Syria without the end of the present regime, and Iran will never accept this because it has created a network of relationships and interests in Syria based on shared religious ideology." "Khomeinism in Iran is also connected with the Syrian regime on more than an ideological basis, since it has been an alliance of strategic interests that has grown stronger whenever doctrinal animosity between the Sunni and Shiite worlds has grown." "It grew after Khomeini himself died and the clerics and Iranian Revolutionary Guard, which views itself as the enemy of the Arabs, became more dominant. Iran has stood by the Al-Assad regime and supplied it with personnel, expertise and arms because it views the enemies of Al-Assad as its own enemies." Western countries have strongly criticised Iran and Russia for supplying weapons to Syria because of the otherwise complete world embargo. In the first few months of the uprising, US officials accused Iran of sending military advisers to Syria to help the regime suppress anti-government protests, claiming that Iranian assistance included advanced surveillance devices that allowed the Syrian authorities to track the users of social-networking sites. Syrian activists say that Iranian advisors have also been seen in Syria helping to track down Thuraya satellite phones, which can be used to get information out of the country, also claiming that the tear gas used against the demonstrators in Syria is made in Iran. At the end of last year, US reports implicated the Iranian Al-Quds Force, which is affiliated to the Revolutionary Guard, of supplying Syria with weapons to use against anti-regime demonstrations. The Revolutionary Guard denied the claims, saying that it had never interfered in Syria's domestic affairs, though it was committed to a mutual defence pact with Damascus and would not abandon Syria if the latter was attacked. "We are trying to block the smuggling of arms to the Syrian regime," Abdel-Rahman Al-Haj, a member of the opposition Syrian National Council (SNC), told the Weekly. "Stopping weapons from reaching Damascus was stressed during the meeting in Paris last week. There has been coordination on this issue between the SNC and various countries, especially those which are permanent members of the UN Security Council, in order to find a way to stop weapons reaching the Syrian regime." In January, the FSA announced the capture of seven Iranians in Syria that it said were members of Iran's Revolutionary Guard working with the Syrian army as snipers. Tehran subsequently said that the men were engineers working at an energy facility in Syria. In early February, Syrian opposition members announced the arrest of another six Iranians, whom they said were members of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard. Tehran denied the claims, saying that the men were pilgrims kidnapped on their way to a Shiite holy site. Later that month, the Syrian opposition detained four Iranians who later confessed on camera that they were members of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard who had participated in killing Syrian protesters. Whatever the truth of claims of Iranian intervention in the Syrian crisis may be, Iran has lost the support of the Syrian population, which now views Iran as a partner of the regime in killing civilians. This has been reflected in the language of the country's opposition, which refers to the "sectarian nature" of relations between Damascus and Tehran. Syria is a crucial component in Iran's Middle East strategy, and it will do all it can to ensure that the Al-Assad regime remains in power. At the same time, some observers believe that if the West decides to carry out a strike against Iran, this will likely begin by an attack on Syria, which is on the battleground of any confrontation between the two sides.
