Has Syria been a military success for Iran?
Iran was willing to negotiate its nuclear situation with world powers, but it wants everyone to know it is far from ready to abandon its strategic interests in the region.
TEHRAN, Iran — Brig. Gen. Hossein Salami, Iran's deputy commander of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), has made it known his country is ready to take on all comers and is stepping up its role in the Syrian war.
“We ourselves are dictating the new literature [and language] of Muslims’ struggle [against the West]. … Therefore, we should be ready to manage multiple direct, and proxy, wars,” Salami said at the National Civil Defense conference Oct. 28 in Tehran.
He also recently noted in a program broadcast by Iranian state television, “Our [IRGC] presence in Syria has increased in both quality and quantity.”
Through Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif, Iran is trying to reach a peaceful agreement with the world powers on Syria. However, it is simultaneously pursuing a strategy of engaging in direct military combat against its adversaries in Syria and Iraq. Despite widespread censorship, news about the deaths of IRGC members in Syria is reported extensively in Iran.
