Throughout the war in Syria, Iran has emerged as a dominant foreign influence on the most bloody and catastrophic conflict the region has known. Tehran is relentlessly applying its financial, military, and economic resources to prop up Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's regime, regardless of its atrocities.
Half of a decade into the Syrian war, Iran has established a major foothold in the country, becoming an undeniable feature of any likely post-war landscape. The Iran-Syria alliance dates to the first years after the Iranian Revolution Syria was the only Arab country that have explicitly stood by Iran during the bloody Iran—Iraq War — While Syria is supposedly secular, the alliance has been cemented with a measure of religious and ideological affinity: Syria's Alawite leadership, was acknowledged as Shia by the Lebanese Shiite cleric Musa al-Sadr in the s , and important Shia shrines and memorials are located in Damascus.
Most importantly, both sides declare themselves as fully committed to "resistance" against Israel. The strategic pact between these two countries deepened when Bashar al-Assad inherited Syria's presidency from his father Iran and Lebanese Hezbollah leader, Hasan Nasrallah, became guardians and tutors of the unexperienced ruler.
Iran became involved in Syria's most sensitive defense affairs and used Syrian territory to transfer advanced arms to Hezbollah. Former U. Most of the kiosks, 31 of them, belonged to Iranian companies selling everything from power plants to biscuits to soap. Two years later, the Syrian-Iranian Joint Chamber of Commerce was set up, and just last month an Iranian delegation traveled to Damascus to ramp up efforts to increase its economic footprint in Syria. President Joe Biden rejoins the nuclear deal.
Two years after the Iran nuclear deal was inked, Tehran reportedly quadrupled its funding to Hezbollah. There is no data on how many Syrians Iran has managed to convert to Shiism or how many it has softened toward its ideas. But its military, cultural, and economic expansion is creating new fault lines in a country already fragile on all fronts. Twitter: anchalvohra. Signs are adding up that the explosives in Beirut may have been intended for Damascus—but Lebanese elites are trying to slow the investigation.
Shusha was the key to the recent war between Azerbaijan and Armenia. Now Baku wants to turn the fabled fortress town into a resort. March 15, , PM. Voice Anchal Vohra. What in the World? November 12, , PM. Trending 1. Fiona Hill: U. A Blueprint for Peace in Ethiopia. Blame Brussels. Latest Analysis. Or are they? The deep, strategic and historic relations between the people of Syria and Iran…will not be shaken by any force in the world. The best way to resolve U.
In this context, it appears highly unlikely that Iran will abandon its support for the al-Assad regime in the near future.
For U. He was a visiting fellow at the American University of Beirut in and frequently visited Syria. Tauris, Iran is not prepared to lose this golden counterweight. Treasury Department, December 11,
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