Iran needs Syria to complete Shia crescent: Iraqi political researcher
ERBIL, KRG, Iraq (North Press) – On Monday, an Iraqi political researcher said that Tehran’s concerns over Syria are behind Iranian interference in Syria, and that Iran needs to maintain a presence in Syria and Iraq in order to maintain dominance over the “Shiite Crescent” – the region of the Middle East with significant population of Shiite Muslims.
“Iranian interference is not something new or secret, as Iranian officials have stressed and bragged that they have seized several capitals, including Damascus, in the middle east,” Muhammad Dershawi, a political researcher residing in Duhok in Kurdistan Region of Iraq (KRG), told North Press.
“Iran deals with Syria and Iraq through the office of the Leader of the Revolution, specifically the Quds Force, which is responsible for extraterritorial operations and supervision of their armed factions, whether factions of the Iraqi Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF) or others in Syria,” the Kurdish researcher said.
Iran’s foreign policy regarding Syria is run in a non-diplomatic way, he adds. “This indicates that Iran implements its policies through armed factions…the US shelling of the pro-Iran Popular Mobilization Forces’ post near the Syrian-Iraqi border was obvious evidence of their presence in Syria too.”
On Thursday, military reinforcements of the Iranian-backed factions of Harakat Hezbollah al-Nujaba and Liwa Fatemiyoun arrived in the vicinity of the city of Palmyra in the central Syrian Desert in the eastern countryside of Homs, having been sent there by the Iraqi PMF Forces.
“The Iranian factions are preparing to launch a large-scale security campaign in areas in the Syrian Desert, starting from Palmyra city towards the desert of Deir ez-Zor and Raqqa, in successive stages,” a member of these factions revealed to North Press.
Meanwhile, a PMF official denied the Iranian penetration of Syria and told North Press that the PMF is not responsible for any interference in the neighboring lands, since it is a regular military force affiliated with the Iraqi defense system.
The PMF refrains from committing any operation themselves within Syria, the PMF official told North Press.
The PMF, as an Iraqi force, carry out tasks within the country and under the command of the commander-in chief of the armed forces, he said in an exclusive phone call.
The official said that the PMF as an official Iraq force carry out security and defense tasks, implement security operations within Iraqi territory, and are not concerned with any faction present in neighboring countries.
The PMF consists of dozens of factions, the most prominent of which are the Badr Organization, Asa’ib Ahl al-Haq, Hezbollah, and others affiliated with Sadrist Movement.
The US and Israel have successively targeted posts of the PMF on the Syrian-Iraqi border and in Syria, under the pretext that they are pro-Iranian factions that work in favor of Iranian regime’s expansionist agenda.
Several militants of the PMF lost their lives as a result of the last attack in July on the Syria-Iraqi borders near Abu Kamal city.
“We condemn and reject the US attacks on the Iraq-Syria border. This is a blatant, unacceptable violation of Iraq’s sovereignty and national security under all international agreements,” Yahya Rasul, spokesman for the Iraqi Armed Forces commander-in-chief, said at the time.