Iran is dispatching increasing numbers of
trainers and advisers, including members of its elite Quds Force, into
Syria to help crush anti-government demonstrations, US officials have
said.
In the account provided by the officials, the Iranian military trainers
were being brought to Damascus to instruct Syrians in techniques Iran
used against the nation's "Green Movement'' in 2009.They also believe that officers from the Quds Force have played a key role in Syria's crackdown since at least mid-April.
The US sanctions imposed against the Quds Force in April were implicitly intended as a warning to Iran to halt the practice, they said.
The Quds Force is a unit of Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps responsible for operations outside the country.
It has helped fund and train Hezbollah and Hamas militants and supported anti-US insurgents inside Iraq.
According to Mona Yacoubian, a former Middle East expert with the State Department's intelligence division and who is a special adviser to the US Institute of Peace, Iran is focused intently on how things are evolving in Syria.
"The two countries have a long-standing alliance of 30 years-plus. Syria is Iran's most important inroad into the Arab world, and its perch on the front line with Israel," The Washington Post quoted Yacoubian, as saying. (ANI)
