Thursday, March 28, 2024
HomeStatementsStatements: Terrorism & FundamentalismMaintaining Bashar Al-Assad Is the Red Line for Iran Regime

Maintaining Bashar Al-Assad Is the Red Line for Iran Regime

ncri-statement-600

As long as the Revolutionary Guards and militias are present in Syria, the crisis continues

Senior mullah Ali Saeedi, Khamenei’s representative in the Revolutionary Guards Corps, said on September 13 that maintaining Bashar al-Assad was the red line of the mullahs’ regime in Syria.

Khamenei had said on June 18, 2017, if the Revolutionary Guards were not fighting in Syria, we would be fighting in Iranian cities today. On Thursday, September 14, the Syrian dictator praised Khamenei in a letter to him as “Imam” and “Supreme Leader of the Revolution” for the “role” of the regime in seizing more areas of the province of Deir-al-Zour and killing the Syrians.

These confessions, which are only examples of numerous similar statements by the regime’s leaders, in addition to the recent (10 days ago) shameful agreement between Hezbollah and ISIS, which was ordered by Khamenei and approved by Assad, reaffirms the fact that as long as the Revolutionary Guards and their mercenary militias are in Syria, they are not turning away from any crimes and massacres in this country, and the Syrian crisis will continue. Eviction of the clerical regime and expelling the Revolutionary Guards and mercenary militias who are engaged in crime with a Shiite banner is the first necessary step to establish peace and tranquility in the Syria.

The replacement of ISIS with the Revolutionary Guards and militias in Syria or Iraq, using the conditions that the international coalition provides, is the biggest danger today threatening the region. Therefore, the Revolutionary Guards and militants should not be allowed to seize more parts of Syria with the help of the Assad army.

Ali Saeedi, representative of Khamenei in the Revolutionary Guards, who called the crimes and war in Syria as “defending the holy shrines of Ahl al-Bayt”, said “maintaining the Bashar al-Assad” is the “red line” of the regime in Syria. He added that today Iraq and Syria are in the service of Islam (i.e. religious fascism), and “this must be explained by the clerics and missionaries to the people.” “Sometimes we say that what Palestine, Syria, Iraq, Lebanon have to do with us … we have a responsibility in the world,” he said in response to a general disgust at the regime’s interference in the region, “and we are making the ground for the globalization of Islam.”

Khamenei and regime leaders have repeatedly said that if they do not fight in Syria and Iraq and other countries in the region, the war will be drawn into Iran, that is, with the people.

Khamenei said on June 18, 2017: “If it was not for the martyr defenders of the holy shrine, today we would have to fight the evil elements and enemies of Ahl-alBayt (AS) “in Iranian cities … The current security of the country is owed to the shrine’s defenders.”

He had also said on January 6, 2017: “If we did not stop the enemy in Syria, we would have to stop them in Tehran, Fars, Khorasan and Isfahan”. He expressed concern on Feb. 5, 2016, “If they were not fighting in Syria … we would have to fight here in Kermanshah and Hamedan and the rest of the provinces with them, and stop them.”

Rouhani acknowledged on February 8, 2016, that with leverage on presence in Syria and Iraq, he got concessions in the nuclear negotiations. “If our brave commanders did not stand in Baghdad and Samarra, and Fallujah and Ramadi, and if they were not helping the Syrian government in Damascus and Aleppo, we did not have security to negotiate so well.”

On September 20, 2016, Mullah Nategh Nouri, head of the Khamenei Special Inspection Office, said: “Lebanon, Syria and Palestine are our embankments. When today we give advice and martyrs in Syria, it is for the enemy not to come to our borders.”

Velayati, Khamenei’s adviser on December 19, 2015 called “Bashar al-Assad and the Syrian regime to be the red line” for the regime, saying, “The Syrians can never find an individual who is as loyal to them as Bashar al-Assad.”

On October 9, 2015, government media quoted Brigadier General Hamedani, the top commander of the Revolutionary Guards who was killed in Syria in September 2015, as saying: “The depth of our strategy is Syria … Geopolitically, Syria is the key to connecting the three continents of Europe, Asia, and Africa. One of our major goals and ideals of the (regime) is the liberation of Quds. Syria is the key to the region. Compared to Iraq, Lebanon and Yemen, Syria is a priority. If any one of these countries encounters a problem, we will not lose as much as losing Syria. Therefore, the goals that we had in Syria were strategic goals.” The same media quoted him as saying on October 6: “March of 2012 terrorists [i.e. the Free Syrian Army] were approaching the point of victory … They were able to tighten the ring of the siege and get closer to the Syrian presidential palace in Damascus so that they would have occupied the palace soon. The situation was very complicated. Bashar al-Assad considered himself done and was looking to go to another country. “

On October 11, 2015, Mohsen Rezaee, secretary of the Expediency Council and former head of the Revolutionary Guards Corps, said: “Hamedani was (killed) in Syria to keep insecurity out of Tehran”.
On November 19, 2015, General Jafari, commander of the Revolutionary Guards, said: “If it were not for Hamedani, Damascus had fallen two or three years ago, and it was unclear what the resistance front would face. In a country like Syria … when their goals are not realized, it will have a direct effect on our security.”

Revolutionary Guard Ali Shamkhani, the secretary of the Supreme National Security Council of the regime, said on December 29, 2014, on the occasion of the death of Taghavi, one of the Revolutionary Guards commanders: “Sick rumor-creating people tell us these days why do we care what is happening in Iraq and Syria; if we do not fight in Iraq and Syria, if Taghavi and likes do not sacrifice in Samarra, we have to sacrifice in Sistan, Azerbaijan, Shiraz and Isfahan … Taghavi and likes of Taghavi today are giving blood so that before we give blood in Tehran, we have to defend and give blood in Samarra.”

National Council of Resistance of Iran – Foreign Affairs Committee
September 15, 2017