Iran sending members of elite Quds force as well as weapons, riot gear, sophisticated surveillance equipment to use against Syria government opposition.
U.S. officials said that Iran is assisting Syrian President Bashar Assad's violent crackdown on protesters, sending trainers and advisers to suppress opposition, according to a Washington Post report.
Iran has sent members of its elite Quds force, whom the United States has recently sanctioned in response to the 10 weeks of brutal Syrian government quashing of protests, to help the Syrian government, Iran's most important ally in the region.
Manpower is only one of the forms of assistance Iran has sent to Syria, the report said, with the Islamist government sending weapons, riot gear and sophisticated surveillance equipment that allows Syrian authorities to trace and find opposition members through Facebook and Twitter accounts.
The surveillance system has reportedly prompted the arrest of hundreds of Syrians in recent weeks, two U.S. officials and a diplomat from an allied nation told the Washington Post, all speaking on condition of anonymity due to the sensitivity of the information.
The diplomat said that Iranian military trainers have been brought to Syria's capital Damascus to teach security forces techniques that were used against the "Green Movement" in 2009. Protests to the allegedly corrupt election of current President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad were met with brutal violence from Iranian security forces.
The elite Iranian Quds force has reportedly played an influential role in crackdowns since at least mid-April, the sources told the Washington Post, prompting Obama to sign an executive order sanctioning the group last month.
The Quds Force is a branch of the Iranian government's principal security agency which operates outside Iran and has in the past been accused by U.S. officials of interfering extensively in political and insurgent activities in Iraq.
The elite force has also helped train members of Hamas and Hezbollah.
Although the number of Iranian advisers in Syria remains unknown, it has reportedly been increasing, according to the U.S. and allied officials.
The Obama administration mentioned the Quds force in a second set of sanctions last week, which targeted Assad and six other top officials including Mohsen Chizari, and Iranian military officer who is the Quds Force's third in command responsible for training.
In March Turkey informed a UN Security Council panel that it seized a cache of weapons Iran was attempting to export to Syria in breach of a UN arms embargo.
The report to the council's Iran sanctions committee, which oversees compliance with the four rounds of punitive steps the 15-nation body has imposed on Iran over its nuclear program, said a March 21 inspection turned up the weapons, which were listed as "auto spare parts" on the plane's documents.
The plane was bound for Aleppo, Syria, and was given permission to pass through Turkish airspace provided it made a "technical stop" at Diyarbakir airport, the report said.
No comments:
Post a Comment