Syria calls in Iran to help stem further losses

‘In the coming days the world will be surprised by what we are preparing, in cooperation with the Syrian military leaders.’

THE Syrian president, Bashar alAssad, has officially invoked a mutual defence pact with Iran to secure more help to prevent further losses to Islamist rebels who now control half his country.

Weakened by four years of relentless war, the Syrian government has sought extra support from its ally in Tehran to consolidate its grip on the territory it still controls in the west of the country.

Syria signed a defence pact with Iran in 2005 in the aftermath of the US-led invasion of Iraq to defend national borders and confront internal threats.

It invoked the pact when Ala alDin Boroujerdi, the head of the Iranian parliament’s national security committee, visited Damascus last month. Qassem Soleimani, the commander of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards, subsequently spoke of a new approach in the conflict.

‘‘In the coming days the world will be surprised by what we are preparing, in co-operation with the Syrian military leaders,’’ he said.

Assad has suffered steady advances in Syria’s north and east not only by Isis but other groups including the al Qaeda-aligned Jabhat al-Nusra and another Islamist faction known as Jaish alFatah (Army of Conquest).

As the strength of the opposition factions has grown, Damascus appears increasingly reconciled to the de facto partition of the country – rather than trying to win back territory already lost to the rebels.

‘‘It is important to safeguard the remaining military from major defeats and high numbers of loss of life especially in areas where the numbers of rebels attacking far outnumber those defending a city or a post,’’ said one of Assad’s lieutenants.

‘‘The task of the new forces sent to Syria will not involve retaking fallen cities or areas.’’

Syria’s request for Iranian support Qassem Soleimani, commander of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards comes after Turkey, Saudi Arabia and Qatar intensified assistance and training for rebels fighting Assad.

Last week, a senior State Department official conceded that Isis recruits were flooding into Syria across the Turkish border.

‘‘Almost all of them are coming in from Turkey. We know that,’’ Brett McGurk, the US deputy special presidential envoy said.

Iranian officials are believed to have played a role in convincing Assad and his military high command that it is better to protect those areas under his control than seek to fight throughout Syria.

This would relieve the battleweary military of the strains of dispersed deployments around the country.

The regime’s last major offensive in Aleppo province in February was unsuccessful.

The Syrian regime retains control of Damascus, Homs and Hama plus the northern coastal area. But it has lost all or most of Aleppo, Idlib, Deir Ezzor, Raqqa and Palmyra.

Homs and Hama are mainly Sunni, while the port cities of Latakia and Tartus are in the heartland of the Alawite community, the offshoot of Shi’ite Islam to which Assad adheres.

After a series of territorial losses, the regime is estimated to retain control of at most half of Syrian territory and up to three quarters of the country’s population.

The Syrian army’s problems have reportedly been further compounded by widespread draft dodging.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights estimates the army has declined to 200,000 soldiers and officers, half its size before the uprising.

Iraq has more than 200,000 fighters in its popular militias and could spare thousands for combat in Syria.

As a first instalment of Iranian support, about 6,000 well-trained fighters from allied countries, including Afghanistan, Pakistan and Iraq have already arrived in Syria.

Tehran also plans to send its own uniformed officials to support Syrian army commanders.

Sources say that if the Iraqi government retakes Ramadi and Mosul, its militia forces would move across the border to help Syria.

Syrian officials hold out hopes that the US and its western allies will come to recognise the shared threat between Iraq and Syria to start security co-operation with Damascus.

‘‘It is up to the West to decide if they want to keep [al Qaeda] and Isis proliferating in Syria and expanding to other parts of the Middle East or to put their differences with Assad aside and co-operate in combating this new menace,’’ a source from the Syrian president’s inner circle said.