IRAN RESTRICTS USE OF ITS AIRBASES
MOSCOW An Iranian official said Monday that Russia would no longer use the Islamic Republic’s airbases to strike targets in Syria — an apparent rebuke of Moscow for announcing the deployment in the press last week.
Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Bahram Ghasemi said that Russia’s use of Iran’s Hamadan Air Base was “temporary, based on a Russian request,” and that it is “finished for now.”
Russia began launching strikes into Syria from Iranian territory last Tuesday in a surprise move that indicated Russia’s growing clout in the region. Along with fighters from Iran and the Lebanese Shiite Hezbollah militia, Russian muscle is helping to prop up President Bashar Assad, striking his enemies from the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant to more moderate armed opposition groups.