The sudden capture of Aleppo last week by Syrian insurgent groups led by Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) has caused Iran to mobilize its so-called “Axis of Resistance” in support of the embattled regime in Damascus.
Those Iranian proxies include Iraqi Shi’ite militias, who, until recently, were firing at U.S. troops who are deployed to Iraq to fight the Sunni terrorist group, ISIS.
But now those same militias have been diverted to Syria for a task more urgent than attacking Americans, namely to defend the Assad regime.
“Iran is scrambling to mobilize regional fighters to help prop up Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and has deployed members of Hizbollah and Iraq’s Shia militias to Syria, soldiers and commanders told the Washington Post,” the paper reported on Wednesday.
“They are awaiting orders to fight,” it stated, somewhat significantly: the Iraqi militias have not been ordered into battle yet, but, according to what the Post was told, they could well receive such orders.
Earlier, Kurdistan 24 had asked the State Department for its comment on the news reports of Iraqi militias going to Syria to defend the Assad regime.
The State Department responded, already on Tuesday. It suggested that Iran was responsible for the dispatch of the Iraqi militias to Syria—the same perspective as expressed by the Post in its report the next day.
“We want to see Iran stop its destabilizing activities inside Syria and the broader region,” a State Department Spokesperson told Kurdistan 24.
She then reiterated the U.S. position on the future of Syria. “We continue to believe that an inclusive, Syrian-led, Syrian-owned political solution as outlined in Resolution 2254 remains the only viable solution to the conflict.”
European countries have joined the U.S. in promoting that position.
The U.S. has also shared that view with its Arab allies. Secretary of State Antony Blinken spoke by telephone with Egyptian Foreign Minister Badr Abdelatty on Wednesday.
Syria was among the topics they discussed, and Blinken “urged de-escalation, protection of civilians and minority groups, and a return to a political process consistent with UN Security Council resolution 2254 to end the conflict once and for all,” according to a read-out provided by State Department Spokesperson Matthew Miller.
Indeed, in an interview with Reuters on Wednesday, Blinken affirmed, “Assad’s utter failure to engage in that process is one of the reasons that he is now under assault.”
“The other problem that he’s faced,” Blinken added, “is that his allies, his partners, have all been distracted by problems of their own making – Iran, Hizbollah, Russia. So they weren’t there,” and “the HTS, a terrorist group, took advantage of that situation.”
Iraqi Militias
As Blinken suggested, a major challenge for the Syrian regime and its Iranian ally is the weakness of Hizbollah, which began attacking Israel early in the morning of Oct. 8, 2023, just hours after Hamas’s brutal cross-border assault against the Jewish state that triggered the ongoing war, which has now entered its second year, even as Hizbollah recently agreed to a cease-fire.
“The last time Syria’s civil war threatened Assad’s hold on power, Hizbollah ground forces played a pivotal role” in saving his regime, the Post said.
But now, with Hizbollah “significantly degraded by its war with Israel, it’s unclear if it has the will or ability this time” to really change the course of the conflict, it continued.
“While Iraqi militias could potentially fill some gaps, analysts say those fighters have less training and inferior munitions,” the Post added.
“The Lebanese and Iraqi fighters deployed to Syria are operating in a ‘defensive’ posture, according to the Hezbollah member and Iraqi commanders, but they say they are ready if their orders change,” it said.
Source » kurdistan24