Report: Iranian terror unit aids Assad regime in clamping down on protestors

07 February 2012

The commander of the Revolutionary Guard's Quds Force is in Damascus to help Syrian President Bashar al-Assad suppress a growing uprising against his regime throughout the country, a senior member of the opposition Syrian National Council said on Monday. The Israeli newspaper ‘Haaretz’ quoted the man as saying that Qassem Suleimani, commander of the Quds Force of Iran’s Revolutionary Guard, has arrived in Syria recently and taken up a spot in the war room which manages army maneuvers against opposition forces. Hundreds of people have been killed in recent days in clashes between protestors and the Syrian military.

The Quds Force includes 15,000 elite soldiers who operated, among other locations, in Iraq during the war, and the specialty of which is engaging in unconventional warfare outside Iran. Among other duties, the special unit is in charge of training and funding Hezbollah, the Lebanese paramilitary group. Suleimani's Quds Force reports directly to the Supreme Leader of Iran, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei (pictured above with Suleimani).

Suleimani last month openly declared that Iraq and Hezbollah-dominated southern Lebanon, on the Israeli border, were now effectively under Iranian control. The Quds Force is listed as a terrorist organization by the United States. It is also suspected as masterminding the 1994 terror attack against the AMIA Jewish center in Buenos Aires, Argentina, in which 85 peope were killed.

Syrian ruler al-Assad's aim is reportedly to show that he is in control of the situation and display his ability to suppress the growing popular unrest, with the determining battles to be staged in the city of Homs and in the reoccupation of the town of Zabadani, which fell to Free Syria Army forces.

New US sanctions against Tehran

Meanwhile, US President Barack Obama has enacted new sanctions against Iran’s central bank. “I have determined that additional sanctions are warranted, particularly in light of the deceptive practices of the Central Bank of Iran and other Iranian banks to conceal transactions of sanctioned parties,” Obama wrote in a message to Congress. The president also decried Iran’s anti-money laundering regime and what he said was the “continuing and unacceptable risk posed to the international financial system by Iran’s activities.”

The sanctions, contained in an executive order signed by Obama on Sunday, block all property and interests of the Iranian government, the Central Bank of Iran (CBI) and all Iranian financial institutions within US jurisdiction. Previously, US institutions were required to reject, rather than block, such transactions. Tehran denounced the US decision as "an antagonistic move" and said it would have no impact.

However, recent US and EU sanctions have made it more difficult for Iran to pay for euro- and dollar-denominated goods, and for it to receive petro-dollars. European sanctions on Iran are expected to have particular impact. The EU imported some 600,000 barrels per day of Iranian oil in the first 10 months of last year — equivalent to nearly 20 percent of Iran’s exports — making it the key market alongside India and China. The European Union last month banned all new contracts for Iranian oil.

Netanyahu warns of “blabber” about Israeli strike against Iran

The Israeli newspaper ‘Ma’ariv’ said on Monday that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had warned officials to stop “blabbering” about the possibility of a military strike against Iran’s nuclear installations. Netanyahu is said to have directed the instruction at a number of military officials and government ministers whom he believes were speaking too freely about a potential Israeli attack on Iranian nuclear facilities. The newspaper, citing unnamed senior officials, said Netanyahu delivered the warning during a meeting with ministers from his Likud party.

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