IRGC’s intervention and heavy casualties in Syria

In the 3 years of war in Syria, the Quds Force has been one of the main security forces of Bashar Assad in and has suffered heavy casualties from the Free Syrian Army and the opposition.

In the beginning of the month of August there was news about the casualties of IRGC forces in Syria. The news was that to this date some 1500 IRGC forces were killed in Syria and double that number were wounded.

More particularly, in recent months and with the advance of opposition forces in areas that are under the control of the IRGC and Assad forces, the casualties of these forces is on the rise. IRGC forces go to Syria to get more money. They intend to carry out a 2 month mission and gather enough money to improve their lives.

Yet the casualties in recent days have brought about the protests of the IRGC forces’ families. On the other hand, the number of those requesting to go to Syria has significantly dropped. This was to a point where Iran was forced to use Iraqi militia groups in recent battles and transfer them to Syria to aid Assad. The Quds Force has pulled out 5000 Iraqi militias from the battlefronts of the war against ISIS in the Salahedin and Anbar provinces and transferred them to Syria.

After the nuclear deal between Iran and the P5+1, Iran can no longer send Quds Force agents to Syria because it is now thinking of luring opposition forces to the negotiating table with Assad in an attempt to eventually disband them.

In his recent speeches in support of the nuclear deal Obama said that this deal is not aimed at bringing change to Iran, but rather it is intended to guarantee the Iranian regime not acquiring a nuclear weapon. On the other hand, on 11 August he said in an interview with MIC website that given the verification process and while keeping all options on the table, including the military option, we have another priority and that is to compel Iran to not support terrorism. Such remarks by Obama are not practical and are only intended to defend himself and get enough votes in Congress. Iran is intervening with full force in Middle East countries and is the main source of terrorism in this region. If Mr. Obama was serious about his remarks, as a first step he would have cut off Iran’s hands from Syria, Yemen and Iraq. To do so he has to support the Syrian and Yemeni opposition.

I warn Mr. Obama and his partners that the bombs that Iran sets off in Middle Eastern countries such as Syria, Yemen, Iraq, Bahrain, Lebanon and Saudi Arabia are much more dangerous than the atomic bomb that you are worried about and your countries will suffer the most detriment from the spread of terrorism.