Interim Minister of Defense Major General Salim Idris said the Assad regime, backed by thousands of Iranian and Hezbollah militiamen, is seeking to take control of southern rural Damascus and in northwestern rural Dara’a and link them with Lebanon’s southern border, which is controlled by Hezbollah.
Idris pointed out that the FSA fighters took many pro-regime militants captives, including Iranian mercenaries, and inflicted heavy losses on the attackers in personnel and equipment.
Member of the political committee Mohammed Qaddah said that Iran is now effectively occupying part of Syrian territory, describing Iran’s military intervention in Syria as a blatant violation of its sovereignty and of international law.
He also said that Assad and his Iranian allies chose southern Syria to pave the way for the creation of a “Syrian Hezbollah” that will serve as a political military force disguised as a resistance movement to the Israeli occupation. Qaddah stresses that the real goal of the new militia force will be consolidating Iran’s influence in the Middle East and making it a key player in the region, pointing out that Iran seeks to take advantage of the Syrians’ hostilities to Zionism and falsely claim that it supports resistance movements in the region, thus derailing the Syrian revolution off its original goals and discrediting it. (Source: Syrian Coalition)
