DARAA/SUWAYDA, Syria (North Press) – Events have recently accelerated in southern Syria after Russia’s Minister of Foreign Affairs Sergey Lavrov said that his country’s forces in Syria had no military missions left.
Lavrov’s statements came in response to the Israeli stance regarding the Russian attack on Ukraine, and to the Turkish threats of launching a military operation in northern Syria.
Iran did not miss the opportunity to meet Lavrov’s statements with attempts to increase its presence in southern Syria, and to pursue its expansionist strategy. This strategy is evident in Iran’s support of some armed gangs in Suwayda, and its attempt to consolidate its foothold in Daraa by establishing captagon drugs factories.
Since the early days when Russia entered south Syria, at the end of 2017, the Iranian leverage has become evident in southern Syria as Russia allowed them to expand their presence in Daraa and Quneitra, and establish military posts.
Russia’s intervention into southern Syria took place after an agreement signed among the US, Russia and Israel. One of the terms was to prevent any Iranian presence in the region. Russia initially denied any Iranian presence, but later, some reports and pictures revealed the Iranian presence in both Daraa and Quneitra.
Malik Abu Khair, Secretary-General of the Syrian al-Liwa Party, told North Press, “The Russian presence in the south is weak, and not strong enough to make it a mediator and guarantor of the condition, and deter the increasing Iranian presence.”
He added that Russia was the “best cover” for the Iranians in southern Syria in the face of Israeli attacks, and “talking about the Russian withdrawal today is what frightens the Iranians the most.”
In late 2017, Russia, the US and Jordan reached understandings to keep Iranian militias 70 km away from the Jordanian borders.
Fears of expansion
However, these understandings have not been implemented and, furthermore, the Iranian presence along with Lebanese Hezbollah has increased since then, which is exactly what the Jordanian king has warned about.
In an interview with H.R. McMaster in Washington DC, for the Battlegrounds series by Stanford University’s Hoover Institution, Jordanian King Abdullah II said that the Russian presence in southern Syria was a source of calm and if they leave “that vacuum will be filled by the Iranians and their proxies” which could lead into “an escalation of problems on our borders.”
Ahrar Horan, an independent media institution that covers southern Syria, said in a report released a few days ago that the Iranian militias “target leaders and members of the [Russian-backed] Eighth Brigade… to push Russia to disband this brigade, which would allow these militias to take control of the eastern countryside of Daraa, adjacent to the western countryside of Suwayda.”
Hussam al-Baram, a researcher and journalist residing in France, said that what raises Jordan’s fears is that Iran could turn southern Syria into a base from which it can move towards Jordan.
Al-Baram believes that “Iran’s passage from southern Syria is to complete the Shiite Crescent, because it ends in Jordan.”
The Shiite Crescent is an Iranian project that supposedly aims at building an ideological belt of Shiite governments in Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, and the Persian Gulf region.
Iran is recruiting the people of the region in drug trafficking, thus maintaining its permanence and continuity in the region, according to the political researcher.