IRAN'S ONGOING EFFORTS TO ASSIST THE SYRIAN REGIME; Congressional Record Vol. 157, No. 86

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IRAN'S ONGOING EFFORTS TO ASSIST THE SYRIAN REGIME

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HON. HOWARD L. BERMAN

of california

in the house of representatives

Wednesday, June 15, 2011

Mr. BERMAN. Mr. Speaker, I rise to draw attention to Iran's ongoing

efforts to assist the Syrian regime in violently suppressing peaceful

protestors.

I submit the articles \\\`\\\`Iran Helping Syrian Regime Crack Down on

Protestors, Say Diplomats,'' printed in the May 9, 2011, Guardian, and

\\\`\\\`Iran Reportedly Aiding Syrian Crackdown,'' printed in the May 27,

2011, Washington Post.

Press reports indicate that Iran is playing an active role in helping

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad brutally crackdown on peaceful

democracy protestors. As the Washington Post reports, \\\`\\\`Iran is

dispatching increasing numbers of trainers and advisers--including

members of its elite Quds Force--into Syria to help crush anti-

government demonstrations that are threatening to topple Iran's most

important ally in the region.''

Syrians have witnessed an increase in arrests, and door-to-door

raids, similar to those that helped to crush Iran's Green Movement

protests in 2009.

Human rights groups suggest that more than 7,000 people have been

detained since the uprising began. And more than 1100 people are said

to have died.

Mr. Speaker, Iran is terrified that it is about to lose its most

important ally in the Arab world--they will do everything in their

power to prevent that from happening. It appears that human life holds

no value to the leaders in Damascus and Tehran.

I encourage all of my colleagues to read these articles and follow

this development closely. The Congress must continue to put pressure on

Syria and Iran so that freedom, respect for human rights and democracy

can emerge in both nations.

\\\[The Guardian, May 9, 2011\\\]

Iran Helping Syrian Regime Crack Down on Protesters, Say Diplomats

Iran is playing an increasingly active role in helping the

Syrian regime in its crackdown on pro-democracy protesters,

according to western diplomatic sources in Damascus.

The claim came as Syria's security forces backed by tanks

intensified operations to suppress unrest in three new

flashpoint towns on Sunday and it was confirmed that four

women had been shot dead in the first use of force against an

all-female demonstration.

A senior western diplomat in Damascus expanded on

assertions, first made by White House officials last month,

that Iran is advising president Bashar al-Assad's government

on how to crush dissent.

The diplomat pointed to a \\\`\\\`significant'' increase in the

number of Iranian personnel in Syria since protests began in

mid-March. Mass arrests in door-to-door raids, similar to

those that helped to crush Iran's \\\`\\\`green revolution'' in

2009, have been stepped up in the past week.

Human rights groups suggest more than 7,000 people have

been detained since the uprising began. More than 800 people

are said to have died, up to 50 during last Friday's \\\`\\\`day of

defiance''. Last night two unarmed demonstrators were

reportedly killed during a night rally in the eastern city of

Deir al-Zor.

\\\`\\\`Tehran has upped the level of technical support and

personnel support from the Iranian Republican Guard to

strengthen Syria's ability to deal with protesters,'' the

diplomat said, adding that the few hundred personnel were not

involved in any physical operations. \\\`\\\`Since the start of the

uprising, the Iranian regime has been worried about losing

its most important ally in the Arab world and important

conduit for weapons to Hezbollah \\\[in Lebanon\\\],'' the diplomat

said.

Last month White House officials made similar allegations

about Iranian assistance for the regime, particularly in

terms of intercepting or blocking internet, mobile phone and

social media communications between the protesters and the

outside world. But the officials did not provide hard

evidence to support their claims.

Activists and diplomats claim Iran's assistance includes

help to monitor internet communications such as Skype, widely

used by a network of activists, methods of crowd control, and

providing equipment such as batons and riot police helmets.

Syria has denied seeking or receiving assistance from Iran

to put down the unrest. In a statement issued on Friday,

Iran's foreign ministry stressed Syria's \\\`\\\`prime role'' in

opposing Israel and the U.S., and urged opposing forces in

the country to compromise on political reform. U.S. policy

towards Syria was based on \\\`\\\`opportunism in support of the

Zionist regime's avarice'', it said.

The Assad family, from the Shia Muslim minority Alawite

sect, is likely to be nervous about appearing to be helped by

its Shia-dominated ally to crush protesters drawn from the

75% Sunni population.

Regime forces backed by tanks were in action over the

weekend in Horns, in the town of Tafas north of Deraa, and in

the coastal city of Banias, activists said. Violence was also

reported in the Damascus dormitory town of Zabadani.

Along with arbitrary detentions, shootings have continued.

Razan Zeitouneh, a lawyer in the capital who is monitoring

the protests, said four women were shot dead in the village

of Merqeb, close to Banias, and six men were shot dead in

Banias on Saturday.

Iran Reportedly Aiding Syrian Crackdown

\\\[From the Washington Post, May 27, 2011\\\]

U.S. officials say Iran is dispatching increasing numbers

of trainers and advisers--including members of its elite Quds

Force--into Syria to help crush anti-government

demonstrations that are threatening to topple Iran's most

important ally in the region.

The influx of Iranian manpower is adding to a steady stream

of aid from Tehran that includes not only weapons and riot

gear but also sophisticated surveillance equipment that is

helping Syrian authorities track down opponents through their

Facebook and Twitter accounts, the sources said. Iranian-

assisted computer surveillance is believed to have led to the

arrests of hundreds of Syrians seized from their homes in

recent weeks.

The United States and its allies long have accused Iran of

supporting repressive or violent regimes in the region,

including Syria's government, the Hezbollah movement in

Lebanon and Hamas in the Gaza Strip. Many previous reports,

mostly provided by Western officials, have described Iranian

technical help in providing Syria with riot helmets, batons

and other implements of crowd control during 10 weeks of

demonstrations against President Bashar al-Assad.

The new assertions--provided by two U.S. officials and a

diplomat from an allied nation, all of whom spoke on the

condition of anonymity to describe sensitive intelligence--

are clearly aimed at suggesting

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deepening involvement of Iranian military personnel in

Syria's brutal crackdown against anti-Assad

demonstrators.There was no response on Friday to requests for

comment left with the Syrian Embassy and Iranian interests

section in Washington.

In the account provided by the diplomat and the U.S.

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, the diplomat

said. The Iranians were brutally effective in crushing those

protests.

Officers from Iran's notorious Quds Force have played a key

role in Syria's crackdown since at least mid-April, said the

U.S. and allied officials. They said U.S. sanctions imposed

against the Quds Force in April were implicitly intended as a

warning to Iran to halt the practice.

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-U.S. insurgents inside Iraq.

While the size of the Iranian contingent in Syria is not

known, the numbers of advisers has grown steadily in recent

weeks despite U.S. warnings, according to the U.S. and allied

officials.

The Obama administration mentioned the role of the Quds

Forces in announcing two sets of sanctions imposed against

Syrian government officials in the past month. A White House

executive order last week that targeted Assad and six other

top government officials also included a little-noticed

reference to Mohsen Chizari, an Iranian military officer who

is the No. 3 leader in the Quds Force in charge of training.

The naming of Chizari--who in 2006 was arrested but later

released by U.S. forces in Iraq for allegedly supplying arms

to insurgents there--suggests that officials possess evidence

of his role in assisting Syria's crackdown on protesters,

said Michael Singh, a former senior director for Middle East

affairs for the National Security Council during George W.

Bush's administration.

\\\`\\\`There's a deeply integrated relationship here that

involves not only support for terrorism but a whole gamut of

activities to ensure Assad's survival,'' Singh said.

It is not unusual for governments to draw on foreign

assistance during times of unrest, as Western-allied

governments in Bahrain and Egypt did when protests were

building in those countries.

Iran's increasing engagement in the Syrian crackdown

reflects anxiety in Tehran about the prospects for Assad, who

has failed to end the protests despite rising brutality that

human rights groups say has left more than 800 people dead

and perhaps 10,000 in prison. While managing to hold on to

power, Assad has been severely weakened after months of

Syrian unrest, according to current and former U.S. officials

and Middle East experts.

\\\`\\\`Iran is focused intently on how things are evolving in

Syria,'' said Mona Yacoubian, a former Middle East expert

with the State Department's intelligence division and who is

a special adviser to the U.S. Institute of Peace. \\\`\\\`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.''

Assad, whose army is stretched across dozens of cities in

an unprecedented domestic deployment, increasingly needs help

to survive, Yacoubian said. And Iran desperately needs Assad.

\\\`\\\`If they lose the Syrian regime, it would constitute a huge

setback,'' Yacoubian said.

Iran, a longtime supplier of military aid to Syria, has

been helping Dasmascus battle the current wave of civil

unrest since at least mid-March, said the U.S. and allied

officials. The emergence of Syria's first true mass

protests--with tens of thousands of demonstrators pouring

into the streets demanding Assad's ouster--initially

flummoxed the country's security leaders, who had little

experience with such phenomena.

On March 23, Turkish officials seized light weapons--

including assault rifles and grenade launchers--on an Iranian

cargo plane bound for Syria. Whether the shipment was

intended to help suppress the uprising is unclear, but around

the same time, Syria received other Iranian shipments that

included riot control gear and computer equipment for

Internet surveillance, the U.S. and allied sources said.

Just before the shipments, Assad announced with great

fanfare that he was lifting the country's ban on the use of

social media such as Facebook and YouTube. While widely

hailed at the time, the move gave Assad's security police an

Iranian-inspired tool for tracking down leaders of the

protest movement, said Andrew Tabler, a former Syria\\-based

journalist who is a Syria expert at the Washington Institute

for Near East Policy.

\\\`\\\`Lifting the ban on Facebook helped the regime pinpoint

where the \\\[activists\\\] were coming from,'' Tabler said in an

phone interview from Lebanon, where he remains in contact

with opposition figures. \\\`\\\`It was not about being

magnanimous; it was a way to allow more surveillance, leading

to thousands of arrests.''

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