Iranian Revolutionary Guards in Syria

This is something that I have missed. Another very alarming sign.

Iran admits Revolutionary Guards in Syria

Members of Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) are providing non-military assistance in Syria and Iran and may get involved militarily if its closest ally comes under attack, commander-in-chief Mohammad Ali Jafari said on Sunday.

The China Post,

17 September, 2012

Jafari's statement is the first official acknowledgement that Iran has a military presence on the ground in Syria, where an 18-month-old uprising has left tens of thousands dead.

Western countries and Syrian opposition groups have long suspected Iran has troops in Syria. Iran has denied this.

“A number of members of the Quds Force are present in Syria but this does not constitute a military presence,” Iranian news agency ISNA quoted Jafari as saying at a news conference.

Iran was “proud of defending Syria, a member of the (anti-Israeli) resistance,” Jafari said. “But it does not mean that we have a military presence there.”

By designating the Quds Force members as advisors, not fighters, Jafari was maintaining Iran's denial of accusations by Western and Arab states that it was militarily shoring up the regime of embattled President Bashar al-Assad.

Quds is an IRGC unit set up to export Iran's ideology. It has been accused of plotting attacks inside Iraq since the overthrow of Saddam Hussein.

Jafari did not indicate how many IRGC members were in Syria but said they were providing “intellectual and advisory help.”

The Islamic Republic has backed Syria's President Bashar al-Assad since the crisis began and regards his rule as a key part of its axis of resistance against Israel and Sunni Arab states.

Jafari also said Iran would change its policy and offer military backing if Syria came under attack.

“I say specifically that if Syria came under military attack, Iran would also give military support but it ... totally depends on the circumstances,” he said.

U.S. officials this month accused Iraq of facilitating the transfer of weapons to Syria by opening its airspace to Iranian aircraft. Baghdad has denied the accusation.

Analysts say that losing its key Syrian ally would weaken the Islamic Republic's ability to threaten Israel through the Syrian-backed Shi'ite resistance movement Hezbollah.

'Nothing of Israel would remain”

Jafari dismissed Israel's threats of attack on Iran, saying Israel was having trouble persuading the United States to back its actions.

“Our answer to Israel is clear. In the face of such actions by the Zionist regime, nothing of Israel would remain,” he said.

He said any Israeli attack on Iran would also trigger retaliatory action on U.S. bases in the region and that trade via the Strait of Hormuz would be disrupted.

Anti-missile defense shields deployed by Israel and the United States in Arab states of the Gulf would be ineffective against a rain of Iranian missiles, he added.

“The defense shields may be capable against a few missiles, but they would not stand a chance against a massive number of missiles,” he said.

But despite Israel's saber-rattling, Iran had no intention of launching a pre-emptive strike, Jafari said.

“Iran does not believe in pre-emptive action to prevent a military strike ... We are ready to respond to their attacks quickly and forcefully, and they are aware of our capabilities. This is our strongest deterrent.”

Jafari also said that, in his opinion, any attack would prompt Iran to leave the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) which is designed to prevent states developing nuclear weapons while permitting peaceful atomic energy generation.

“In case of an attack, Iran's obligations will change. My assessment is that Iran may leave the NPT — but it would not mean a dash towards a nuclear bomb because we have a religious edict from the supreme leader” against atomic weapons, he said.

Three rounds of talks earlier this year between Iran and the P5+1 group of countries — the United States, Russia, China, Germany, France and Britain — have so far failed to reach agreement on Iran's nuclear activities which the U.S. believes are targeted at developing a weapons capability.

The West is demanding that Tehran halts all high-grade enrichment, close its Fordo nuclear facility and ship out all stocks of high-grade uranium.

Tehran maintains its nuclear program is entirely peaceful.

Iranian elite units rumored to be in Syria to advise Assad

The elite special unit of Iran's Revolutionary Guards is in Syria to advise on non-military matters, but could get involved militarily if Damascus is attacked from the outside, General Mohammad Ali Jafari has reportedly confirmed.

RT,

17 September, 2012

The commander of Iran's Revolutionary Guards said that the Quds Force is present in Syria and Lebanon, but only to provide "counsel."

"A number of Quds Force members are present in Syria and Lebanon… we provide [these countries] with counsel and advice, and transfer experience to them. But it does not mean that we have a military presence there," Iranian news agency ISNA quoted Jafari as saying.

The question of military involvement in Syrian affairs will “depend on the circumstances… I say specifically that if Syria came under military attack, Iran would also give military support,” he said.

Jafari did not indicate how many members of the elite unit were present in Syria.

Some media outlets have denied that Jafari gave the statement. A source in the Quds told Al Arabiya that the reports were “fictional and absolutely untrue,” stressing that the Revolutionary Guard does not interfere in the internal affairs of any country.

The Islamic Republic has supported Syrian President Bashar al-Assad since the crisis began last year, and sees his rule as a key support center in countering the policies of the US, Israel and regional Sunni Arab states.

There have also been speculations that a number of Western and Gulf states have elite units on the ground in Syria to train and support the rebels’ cause in fighting government forces.

Meanwhile, Iraq's fugitive vice president, sentenced to death for allegedly running death squads, has claimed that Iraq is “becoming an Iranian corridor” to support Assad’s regime. “It is not only the airspace,” he told Reuters. “It is thousands of militia now inside Syria.”

However, a senior adviser to Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki rejected the accusations, saying “that Iraq will not allow any state to use its airspace to transport arms to Syria.”

Clashes have meanwhile intensified in Syria as government troops fight with the rebels in the cities of Damascus, Aleppo, Daraa, Hama and Homs. Some report the use of aerial bombardments and heavy artillery.

On Sunday, state media reported that the Syrian army had eliminated all armed insurgents in the Midan district of Aleppo, while scores of other armed men were killed in the Fardous district. SANA also reported that at least eight civilians have been killed and 25 others injured in a separate incident after a bomb exploded in Daraa.

The latest violence comes as the new school term starts in Syria, with the UN saying that over 2,000 schools have been damaged and hundreds more are being used as temporary shelters.

Eighteen months into the crisis, international action is at a stalemate, with Russia and China fearing a repeat of the Libya scenario as the West, the Gulf Arab states and Turkey call for Assad's removal from power without considering potential crimes committed by the Syrian insurgency.