Iranian MP: Revealing details of Iran’s military support of Syrian regime ‘against national interests’

Last month an Iranian MP boasted during a speech that Iran had trained some 150,000 Syrian regime fighters on Iranian soil, another 150,000 in Syria, in addition to 50,000 Hezbollah Lebanon fighters.[1] Now another MP is demanding that Seyyed Mahmoud Nabavian, who revealed the information, is prosecuted. Mansour Haghighatpour says disclosing such details paints Iran as a “supporter of terrorists” and would harm the country’s “national interests”.[2]

Interestingly, Haghighatpour, who is affiliated with the ruling conservative block, did not deny the Iranian regime’s role in training and supporting Basshar al-Assad’s forces and those fighting alongside them. He only insisted that revealing such details would harm Iran’s ‘national interest’ and should therefore be kept secret.

COMMENT FROM THE EDITOR:
Iranian hardliners are facing a dilemma: on the one hand, they need to boast in order to justify Iran’s military presence in Syria and mobilise their followers. On the other, they have to watch out for Western countries’ reactions to such statements to avoid further fractures in their already troubled relations with the West. Such maneuvers are doomed to fail, however. After two years of bloodshed in Syria, no one – not even Iranian officials – can deny Sepah Pasdaran’s substantial role in keeping Bashar al-Assad in power against Syrian peoples’ will.

NOTES:
[1] Farsi: http://emroozofarda.ir/?p=3047
English: http://en.trend.az/regions/iran/2241820.html.
[2] http://khabaronline.ir/%28X%281%29S%28zv0jvfqnirzv02vdv33nlcia%29%29/detail/338638/Politics/parliament

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