Abandoning discretion, Iranians proclaim role in Syrian war
Many now see the war as an existential issue with state drumming up threat to revered sites
Abandoning a long-standing reticence, Iranians are increasingly candid about their involvement in Syria’s war, and informal recruiters are now openly calling for volunteers to defend the Islamic Republic and fellow Shiites against Islamist militants.
With public opinion swinging behind the cause, numbers of would-be fighters have soared far beyond what Tehran is prepared to deploy in Syria, according to former fighters who spoke to Reuters, and commanders quoted by Iranian media.
Iran has been sending fighters to Syria since the early stages of the five-year war to support its ally, President Bashar Al Assad, in the struggle against rebels backed by Gulf Arab states and Western powers.
Once Tehran described these forces as military “advisers” but with around 400 killed on the battlefield, this discretion has slipped and several thousand are now believed to be fighting Daesh and other groups trying to topple Al Assad.
Many Iranians initially opposed involvement in the war, harbouring little sympathy for Al Assad. But now they are warming to the mission, believing that Daesh is a threat to the existence of their country best fought outside Iran’s borders.
“The first line for the security of Iran is Syria and Iraq,” a would-be volunteer named Mojtaba told Reuters by email from Tehran. Mojtaba, who asked that he be identified by only his first name, said he had been trying in vain to get out to fight in Syria for the past two years.
Fear of Daesh
While Daesh still holds large areas of Syria and Iraq, it has so far failed to stage attacks in neighbouring Iran like it has in Turkey. Nevertheless, Iranian media have reported the breaking up of cells linked to the terrorist group at home, and the large numbers of people such as Mojtaba willing to join the battle in Syria suggest Tehran has the stamina to pursue its involvement there for years if it wishes.
Iran alludes to its fighters in Syria as “defenders of the shrine”, a reference to the Syeda Zeinab mosque near Damascus, which is where a granddaughter of the Prophet Mohammad (PBUH) is said to be buried, as well as other shrines revered by Shiites. It is casting its recruitment net wide. As well as Iranians, it has gathered Shiites from Lebanon, Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan to battle the Syrian opposition in what has become a sectarian conflict.
Brigadier General Mohsen Kazemeini, the Revolutionary Guard Corps commander for greater Tehran, said last month that there were so many volunteers that “only a small number of them are sent to [Syria]”, according to the Defa Press site.
Fighters killed in Syria are praised as heroes on state television and given lavish funerals. Iranian wrestler Saeed Abdevali dedicated the bronze medal he won at the Rio Olympics to the families of “defenders of the shrine” who have been killed.
Some volunteers, disappointed at the long waiting list, take a shortcut. They fly directly to Damascus and volunteer at the Syeda Zeinab shrine, according to postings on Modafeon, a website dedicated to news and pictures of the “defenders”.
The potent message of protecting the shrines has drawn in Shiite Afghans, some of whom live in Iran and others in Afghanistan. These Afghans fighting in Syria under the supervision of the Revolutionary Guards are known as the Fatemiyoun.
A 26-year old Afghan student living in Mashad in northeast Iran described how he was sent with other Fatemiyoun to fight in Damascus and Aleppo for about 45 days after limited training.
“We are both fighting in Syria, so it shows our cause is far beyond geographic borders. We are fighting to defend our sacred beliefs and Shiite ideology.”
Enlistment incentives
Asked if he thought Iranian society had grown more welcoming to those who fight in Syria, he said: “One hundred per cent. When I was deployed, people were saying that they were doubtful if our fight would change anything. But now they respect the fighters more, as they are more familiar with the threats the rebels in Syria and Iraq can cause to Iran.” He said that pay, or the promise of gaining Iranian citizenship upon their return from the battlefield, are also incentives for some Afghans to volunteer.
Karim Sadjadpour, an Iran expert at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace in Washington, said that this appealed more to public opinion than support for Al Assad. “Fighting Shiite-hating bloodthirsty [Daesh] terrorists is easier to sell to Iranians than wasting billions on a ruthless dictator who gasses his population,” he said.
Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has described the wars in Syria and Iraq, where Iranian-backed authorities are also fighting militants, as crucial to the survival of the Islamic Republic.
If Iranians had not gone and died fighting there, “the enemy would enter the country,” he said. This perception has won over many doubters.
In August, Iran arrested four men in Mashad “accused of trying to attract young people’s attention by putting together fake stories about their presence on the frontline”, a local official was quoted as saying.
Iran expert at Carnegie Endowment for International Peace in Washington