Iranian commander: “Growing number of Iranian citizens volunteer for deployment in Syria and Iraq”

Saturday 21 May 2016

Iranian commander: “Growing number of Iranian citizens volunteer for deployment in Syria and Iraq”

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IRGC Spokesman: “Growing Number of Iranians Demanding Deployment in Syria”

(FNA) ~ Head of the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) Public Relations Department General Ramezan Sharif announced on Wednesday that a growing number of Iranians have volunteered to be dispatched to Syria for war against terrorism.

“Today, we are facing a growing wave of demands for being sent to Syria and Iraq and many young people from different parts of Iran and different ethnicities have volunteered,” Ramezan Sharif said on Wednesday.

He also warned of the enemies’ plots to hit Iran through terrorist groups, including the ISIL and al-Qaeda, but underlined, “The Iranian Armed Forces have grown so powerful that the enemy doesn’t dare to make the slightest aggression against the country.”

“This is not a slogan; rather it is an undeniable reality,” Ramezan Sharif stressed.

Iran has pioneered in helping the regional states’ fight against terrorism, specially Iraq and Syria, and has demanded the regional and world states to partner in the war on against terrorist groups.

In relevant remarks in April, Lieutenant Commander of the Iranian Army Brigadier General Abdolrahim Moussavi announced that the country will continue dispatching volunteer military advisors to Syria.

“Since the start of the conflict in Syria, the Islamic Republic of Iran’s Armed Forces voiced readiness for (overseas) deployment and pressured their commanders to be dispatched to the region,” General Moussavi said.

He said Supreme Leader of the Islamic Revolution and Commander-in-Chief Ayatollah Seyed Ali Khamenei was then informed of the Iranian military men’s preparedness and interest, and the Leader agreed with dispatching a number of advisors.

General Moussavi underlined that dispatch of military advisors to Syria is done fully voluntarily, and said, “This will continue as long as necessary.”

Also last month, Iranian Army Commander Major General Ataollah Salehi dismissed his forces’ organized presence in Syria, saying that only some army men have been dispatched to the country among other volunteer military advisors.

“The Army has no responsibility to render advisory services to Syria and there is an organization in Iran which adopts the related measures,” General Salehi told reporters in Tehran.

“We, in the Army, are facing a large number of forces who love to be sent to this front (in Syria) but have never claimed that Brigade 65 of Nohed (Special Airborne Forces) is present there,” he said

“A number of volunteer forces have been dispatched to Syria which may consist of some members of the Brigade 65,” General Salehi added.

He, meantime, underlined that Iran helps those Muslim states which have been attacked by enemies.

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SOURCES:
Fars News Agency
Submitted by Cem Ertür 
War Press Info Network at :
https://syrianfreepress.wordpress.com/2016/05/18/iranian-syria-iraq/
~

Russia, Iran in ‘Strong Position Over the West’ in Syrian Peace Talks

Moscow and Tehran have an advantage over the West in the Syrian negotiation process, John Sawers, former chief of MI6, said.

“In any political process the facts on the ground dictate who has the leverage of the negotiation table. And the fact that the Russians have intervened and the Iranians have intervened and the West has not done so means inevitably that in any political negotiation the Russians and the Iranians are going to be in a pretty strong position, more so than Europe and the United States,” Sawers told CNN.

The ISSG was formed in November 2015 as an international format to resolve the Syrian crisis. Russia and the United States co-chair the ISSG, which includes Iran and 15 other countries, as well as the United Nations, the Arab League and the European Union.

The Syrian peace talks in Geneva involve representatives of the Syrian government as well as delegations of Syrian opposition forces, including some radical groups like Jaysh al-Islam.

Jaysh al-Islam militants are accused of using human shields, mass killing, abductions, and using chemical weapons. At the same time, representatives of the group are still involved in the talks.

On May 11, the US along with Britain and France vetoed Russia’s proposal to the UN Security Council on adding Jaysh al-Islam to the list of terrorist organizations.

By not recognizing the Jaysh al-Islam extremist group as terrorists the West risks derailing the Syrian peace process, former CIA contractor Stephen Kelley told RT.

The “West’s unwillingness to label Jaysh al-Islam a terrorist organization poses a threat to the peaceful settlement. This group is not moderate because they kill civilians,” Kelley pointed out.

According to him, representatives of Jaysh al-Islam must be excluded from the talks.

“They are murderers. They are militants and they cannot represent the Syrian people. They are carrying out genocide,” Kelley added.