Thursday, 28 February 2013

Yemen: reported US covert actions 2013

Yemen: reported US covert actions 2013

January 3rd, 2013 | by 
the Bureau  
An MQ-1 Predator sits in its hangar (U.S. Air Force/ Airman 1st Class Jonathan Steffen)
The Data
The events detailed have been reported by US and Yemeni government, military and intelligence officials, and by credible media, academic and other sources. Strikes include ground operations, naval attacks and airstrikes – by drone, cruise missile and conventional aircraft.
Many of the US attacks have been confirmed by senior American or Yemeni officials. However some events are only speculatively attributed to the US, or are indicative of US involvement. For example precision night-time strikes on moving vehicles, whilst often attributed to the Yemen Air Force, are more likely to be the work of US forces. We therefore class all Yemen strikes as either confirmed or possible.

As Yemen came under severe pressure during the Arab Spring and militants seized control of cities and towns in the south, the US significantly stepped up its attacks, most notablysept with drone strikes. Since mid 2011 US counter terrorism operations in Yemen have been conducted by both the Pentagon and the Central Intelligence Agency. Attacks are aimed at al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula and more recently, Ansar al-Sharia.
The Bureau will continue to add to its knowledge base, and welcomes input and corrections from interested parties.

January
YEM127
January 4 2013
♦ 3 reported killed
At least three people were killed in a reported drone strike on a vehicle in a ‘mountainous area’ near Radaa. Among those who died was a man named by AFP as Mukbel Abbad and by al Jazeera and Xinhua as Moqbel Ebad Al Zawbah, ‘brother-in-law of Tareq al-Dahab who led the Al-Qaeda fighters in a brief January 2012 raid on Rada’. Local media said Sahr Qaid Al Dhahab had been killed. This was the fifth strike to hit Yemen in 10 days; the London Times reported the strikes were believed to target Abdulraouf al-Dahab, who was ‘instrumental in al-Qaeda’s takeover of Radaa early last year’.
The following day Reuters reported that local tribesmen demonstrated in Radaa against US drone strikes. One told the news agency that ‘seven innocent civilians’ had been killed in recent strikes. The London Times also reported that Saudi Arabian jets have participated in recent airstrikes in Yemen commonly attributed to US or Yemeni forces. However a senior member of the Saudi royal family denied this.
Location: Radaa, Bayda province
References: AFP, Reuters, Xinhua, Al Jazeera, Wired, Mareb Press (Arabic), Associated Press,Reuters, Long War Journal, Reuters, London Times (£), Al Jazeera, Reuters, Gulf News (UAE)
YEM128January 19 2013♦ 0-5 reported killedThe first of a barrage of strikes to hit central Yemen left as many as five dead. There was some confusion over the exact details of the night’s events. While the majority of sources said the strike missed a vehicle carrying alleged militants, Mareb Press reported it was a hit and five people were killed. According to the Yemen Observer the first strike hit a populated area called al Daleel at 7pm. It missed its target and caused no casualties. The strike angered the local population and the provincial authorities said they expected a reaction. Xinhua also reported zero casualties in the first strike. However an official at the Criminal Investigation Unit in Marib told the agency the strike hit at 10.30pm. The Yemen defence ministry reportedly confirmed the strikes hit Mareb province but would not confirm if the Yemen Air Force or US forces carried out the attacks. The Yemen Air Force has been shown to lack the technical capacity to launch precision strikes, or fly at night.
YEM129January 19 2013♦ 2-4 reported killedSeveral sources, Reuters among them, reported a drone destroyed the vehicle it missed in the first strike. However AFP reported the four occupants had made off on foot after their narrow escape earlier in the evening. Xinhua reported the strike hit half an hour after the first and killed two alleged militants who were ‘inspecting previous strike’. But separate sources said the strike hit the vehicle 8km from the site of the first strike. Alleged Saudi militant Ismaeel Bin Saeed Bin Jameel was reportedly killed in the strike, although the occupants of the car were reportedly burnt beyond recognition.
YEM130
January 19 2013
♦ 2-6 reported killed
♦ 0-4 civilians reported killedAt least two were killed in the last strike of the night, although a military vehicle stolen from the Yemen army and carrying six was reportedly destroyed. AFP initially reported that the strike killed four people from the ‘al Haytak clan, part of the Abida tribe’ without specifying if they were also al Qaeda militants. However the agency subsequently reported five alleged al Qaeda militants perished in the strike, including Saudi Hamad Hassan Ghreib (aka Amhed Bin Hassan Ali Gahreib). The following morning angry tribesmenblocked the main road from Marib to Sanaa in protest.
YEM131
January 21 2013
♦ 2-4 killed♦ 3 reported injured
The fourth strike in three days killed at least two men driving on the Sanaa-Marib highway. Witnesses told Reuters a US drone targeted the vehicle northeast of the capital. Security officials said three people were injured in the strike, two seriously.Ahmed al Ziadi an alleged al Qaeda commander in Marib province, died of his wounds ‘hours later‘. Two casualties were named as Qasem Naser Tuaiman and Ali Saleh Tuaiman. Both men were reportedly imprisoned a year before their death for joining al Qaeda. However AFP’s sources alleged they rejoined the militant group on their release. The Yemeni defence ministry said four were killed in the strike but would not say who was responsible. The US was known to use both conventional strike fighters and drones over Yemen. And the Yemen Air Force lacks the technical capacity to carry out a precision strike on a moving vehicle.
Security officials said US-Yemeni counterterrorism operations would be stepped up ahead of the National Dialogue Conference – an opportunity for some time in February, for Yemenis to discuss constitutional reforms and pave the way for elections in 2014. The Yemen Army sent troops and tanks into Radaa province on the same day as the strike. ‘Hundreds of soldiers and 50 tanks‘ moved into the province amid reports that Radaa tribal leaders had persuaded the militants to leave heavily populated areas. The militants were asked to move to minimise civilian casualties from counter insurgency operations by Yemeni forces and US drone strikes. They reportedly gained the release of al Qaeda prisoners in return.
Location: Nakhla, Marib province
References: Xinhua, AFP, Reuters, AFP, Associated Press, 26Sept.net, Associated Press, Yemen Post, Yemen Observer, Yemen Times
A Twitter user highlights the timing of suspected drone strike YEM131.
YEM132
January 22 2013
♦ 3-5 killed
♦ ‘Several’ reported injuredAn evening strike reportedly targeted vehicles at an alleged militant training ground, killing at least three and injuring ‘several‘. Most reports attributed the strike to US drones. However al Oulyae subsequently reported that Saudi jets carried out the strike. The strike apparently hit a few miles from the Saudi border in al Jawf. A desert area of Yemen and a hub for militants crossing between the two countries, according to the Long War Journal. An anonymous official told Xinhua:
A Saudi agent facilitates the fresh US airstrike on two vehicles carrying important commanders of al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula.’
And earlier in January The London Times reported Royal Saudi Air Force had launched a number of strikes against militant targets in Yemen. Witnesses reported there were three burnt bodies left after the strike and told AFP that unidentified vehicles sped away from the scene. A local officialsaid:
The strike targeted a gathering of al Qaeda members who had made the area a center for training. One of the cars was hit and everyone inside was killed…the others fled.’
The bodies had not been identified, the official added.
Location: Al Boka, al Jawf province
References: Associated Press, AFP, Reuters, Long War Journal, Xinhua, KUNA, Al Oulyae (Ar), Associated Press, Aden al Ghad (Ar), 26Sept.net (Ar)
YEM133January 23 2013♦ 5-7 killed
♦ 0-1 civilian reported killedA possible US drone strike left as many as seven dead. The attack targeted a vehicle – a double cab Toyota Hilux according to local media. The vehicle was reportedly ‘totally destroyed‘ and the bodies burnt beyond recognition. However Yemeni medianamed five of the dead. Salem Mohsen Jamel, Ali Mohammed Jamel, Mohsem Mohsen Jamel and Al Nashiri perished. Rabae Laheb (aka Rabiee Lahib) also died, despite being reported dead in November 2012. He was said to be from the area and the target of the strike. Two of the alleged militants were reportedly unidentified. However three days after the strike a report claimed that five perished in the attack and one was a civilian. ‘Khawalan locals‘ said four unnamed alleged militants payed a Khawalan man to drive them to Sanaa. The alleged AQAP operatives came from Marib and payed Saleem Muhammed Al Qawili 50,000 Yemeni Rials (£150). But the vehicle was destroyed before reaching the capital. Angered at the death of a tribesman, the Khawlan tribe protested by blocking the main road linking Marib and Sanaa.
Destroyed vehicle YEM133
The destroyed vehicle ( Yemen Observer)
A tribal source told AFP that four missiles were fired at the vehicle which was said to be laden with explosives. The force of the explosion reportedly blew body parts far from the centre of the blast and left the wreckage burning for an hour. The strike hit at 8pm, approximately 20 miles southeast of the capital. And reportedly 10 minutes drive from Yemen’s largest arms market. Two Saudis were said to be among the dead – the fourth Saudis the Bureau recorded killed in Yemen in 2013. It appears the Saudi military is embroiled in the covert war in Yemen. A report alleges Saudi jets rather than US drones carried out the attack the previous day (YEM132). This news came after it emerged that Saudi jets had attacked militant targets in Yemen before.
Laheb was thought to have been killed in the last strike on Sana province, on November 7 2012 (YEM122). His brother Qalil Laheb owned the land where the first strike hit. Adnan al Qathi, a Yemen Army Colonel, was the target of that strike. A contemporaneous report cast doubt on al Qathi’s militant credentials. It questioned why he was not arrested, pointing out that, far from being a distant and lawless province, ousted President Ali Abdallah Saleh was born there and where much of the country’s military elite had country retreats.
Location: Khawlan, Sanaa province
References: Associated Press, Reuters, AFP, CNN, Mareb Press (Ar), Xinhua, Barakish (Ar), Al Arabiya/AFP, Al Oulyae (Ar), Yemen Observer
YEM134
January 23 2013
♦ 2-4 killed
♦ 0-2 children reported killed
♦ 0-3 reported wounded
A second possible drone strike of the day killed two or four people according to conflicting media reports. The Los Angeles Times reported the strike hit two motorcycles – its intended target – and killing the alleged militants. However anonymous sourcesgave a contradictory account to Xinhua. They said the strike missed the bikes, hitting a house belonging to Abdu Mohammed al-Jarrah. Two of his children were reportedly killed and three more family members injured. And Yemeni media outlets al Oulyae and Barakishmuddied the water still further. They reported one or two people were killed in the house and two on a motorcycle near the house. According to al Oulyae, a US drone fired two missiles. The first killed two motorcyclists and the second hit al Jarrah’s house, killing one son of Jebran Abdu al Jarrah and seriously injuring a second. Ahmed Ali al Mansi was also seriously injured in the strike which hit at 8.30pm – half an hour after the Khawlan strike (YEM134). Earlier in the day the province’s police chief narrowly escaped assassination when a bomb attached to his car exploded, killing his bodyguard.
Reports of civilian casualties emerged on the day the UN launched an investigation into civilian casualties form and the identity of alleged militants killed in drone strikes. UN Special Rapporteur for war crimes Ben Emmerson QC will investigate CIA and Pentagon strikes in Yemen, Pakistan and Somalia as well as operations in Afghanistan. The team will also look at drone strikes by US and UK forces in Afghanistan, and by Israel in the Occupied Territories. One area the inquiry is expected to examine is the deliberate targeting of rescuers and funeral-goers by the CIA in Pakistan, as revealed in an investigation by the Bureau for the Sunday Times.
Location: Qayfa, al Bayda province
References: Los Angeles Times, Xinhua, Barakish (Ar), Al Oulyae (Ar)

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No evidence Congressional committee does ‘utmost’ to follow up drone civilian death claims

No evidence Congressional committee does ‘utmost’ to follow up drone civilian death claims

by Chris Woods

Are Congressional oversight bodies really doing their ‘utmost’? (Photo L’ennnui/ Flickr)

February 27, 2013
Claims by a powerful Senate oversight committee that it is doing its 'utmost’ to verify claims of civilian casualties from covert US drone strikes have been undermined by the discovery that it has made no contact with any group conducting field studies into civilian deaths in Pakistan.
On February 7 the CIA’s director-designate John Brennan was questioned by members of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence.
In her opening remarks, chair Dianne Feinstein insisted that civilian deaths from US covert strikes 'each year has typically been in the single digits’.
Feinstein also said that 'for the past several years, this committee has done significant oversight of the government’s conduct of targeted strikes’ and had done its 'utmost to confirm’ civilian casualty data provided by the executive branch.
However, the Bureau can find no indication that either the House or Senate intelligence committees have sought evidence from beyond the US intelligence community, when following up claims of civilian deaths.
While public estimates of civilian deaths vary, all monitoring groups report higher than 'single digit’ fatalities for most years. The Bureau presently estimates that at least 411 civilians have been killed by the CIA in Pakistan since 2004, for example.

'Never contacted’
Professor Sarah Knuckey, who co-led the recent field investigation by New York and Stanford universities into the Pakistan strikes, confirmed that her team has never been contacted by any US government official, or Congressional committee member or aide.

'US officials have stated that they have done their utmost to verify civilian casualty numbers, and that they investigate and take seriously reports of civilian harm. These public commitments are welcome,’ Knuckey told the Bureau.
'But if the commitments are serious, why haven’t officials followed up with the organizations and journalists who investigated strikes and collected information relevant to determining any civilian harm?’
Those concerns were echoed by Sarah Holewinski, executive director of the Center for Civilians in Conflict. Thirty months after it issued its ground-breaking report into civilian deaths, Holewinski said this week that 'we have never been contacted by Administration officials about our research and analysis on the covert drone program.’
Lawyer Shahzad Akhbar, who heads Reprieve’s team in Pakistan, again confirmed that no contact had been made, though he recalled a meeting in late 2012 with then-acting US ambassador Richard Hoagland:
'I give him further details of some other strikes that killed civilians, and without looking at what I was giving him Hoagland insisted that he checked the figure that morning and it was still in single digits,’ said Akhbar.
Associated Press, which interviewed more than 80 civilian eyewitnesses in the tribal areas for a major report in early 2012, confirmed that no US officials had ever sought follow -up.
The Bureau’s managing editor Christopher Hird also noted that 'We have always been happy to share and discuss our findings with others researching this subject, but in the two years of our work we have never heard from either of these committees, or their staff."
OrganisationYearFindings
Center for Civilians
in Conflict (Civic)		2010Extensive eyewitness reports of civilian deaths
Reprieve/FFR2010 -
present		Ongoing field work and legal cases
The Bureau2011 -
present		Three field investigations into reported deaths
Associated Press2012Major field study of recent high-casualty
strikes
NYU/Stanford
universities		2012Detailed eyewitness reports of civilian deaths
and broader impact of CIA campaign
Secure Room
Both the House of Representatives and the Senate have committees tasked with overseeing the vast US intelligence community – including the CIA, which carries out the majority of covert drone strikes.

Most oversight is carried out in secret. However, some details have recently emerged of how the two committees seek to hold the CIA to account on the drone programme.
Senator Feinstein first revealed the process in a letter to the Los Angeles Times in May 2012.
She implied that monthly oversight had begun in January 2010, a year after Obama took office, noting that her committee 'receive notification with key details shortly after every strike’. She added that her staff  ’has held 28 monthly in-depth oversight meetings to review strike records and question every aspect of the program including legality, effectiveness, precision, foreign policy implications and the care taken to minimize noncombatant casualties.’
Shortly after Brennan’s public confirmation hearing in February 2013, Feinstein added more details about the process,  which she said also looked at video footage of strikes. Both the House and Senate intelligence committees are understood to view the footage at the same time.
According to a Los Angeles Times report on the process, oversight committee staffers gathered in a secure room at CIA headquarters 'also sometimes examine telephone intercepts and after-the-fact evidence, such as the CIA’s assessment of who was hit.’
One senior staffer told the paper: 'I don’t know that we’ve ever seen anything that we thought was inappropriate.’
'Blind faith’
Sarah Holewinski of the Center for Civilians in Conflict is now urging the Congressional oversight committees to be far more pro-active in their approach – and far less dependent solely on the word of the CIA.

She noted that unlike in Afghanistan, investigations into reported civilian deaths in US covert drone operations 'are limited to overhead surveillance, not collecting witness statements and digging in the dirt for evidence of what happened or who exactly was killed.’
And Holewinski pointed to the risk of reliance on the Agency’s own definitions of those it is killing which may not accord with international law. Noting the CIA’s use of so-called signature strikes against alleged militants, whose identity is unknown and who appear to fit certain patterns of behaviour, Holewinski told the Bureau: ’There’s every reason to want to believe claims of such low civilian casualties caused by drone strikes.’
'But given obstacles to knowing precisely who was killed on the ground and without real evidence to back up the claims, to believe officials’ claims would be an act of blind faith that isn’t fair to the civilians suffering losses.’

At the time of writing, Senator Feinstein’s office had not responded to requests for comment.  


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Qatar's influence in Egypt runs deeper than its pockets

Qatar's influence in Egypt runs deeper than its pockets

Youssef Hamza

22qatar-egypt30_49943222_n.jpg
The Qatari republic of Egypt" by an Egyptian cartoonist

February 27, 2013
It is difficult to separate fiction from reality when it comes to how much influence Qatar's deep pockets may carry beyond assisting Egypt's efforts to restore its diving economy. Stories that raise questions about Egypt's ability to maintain autonomy over its resources are denied as fast as they are published.

But there is little question that the two are forging a friendship that is rooted in a large part to the financial largesse of the Gulf state and the fiscal plight of the region's most populous Arab nation.

Beyond that, other factors appear to be at play. One is Doha's compelling desire - some would say obsession - to wield a regional influence disproportionate to its small size. Another is the election in Egypt of an Islamist president, Mohammed Morsi, whose victory marked a landmark in Qatar's longtime support for Islamists across the region.

Qatar was an anathema to former Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak, who had made no secret of his contempt for the super-rich state and what he saw as its propaganda tool, Al Jazeera television.

But all that changed with the fall of the Mubarak regime in 2011 and the rise of the Muslim Brotherhood as Egypt's most powerful political group.

Qatar has since poured billions of dollars into Egypt, mostly as bonds to bolster the country's fast-dwindling coffers. Top Qatari officials, from the emir down to the head of his intelligence agency and the powerful prime minister, have been frequent visitors to Cairo in recent months.

On the Egyptian side, the Brotherhood, rather than the foreign ministry, controls the country's dealings with Qatar. Khairat El Shater, a wealthy businessman and arguably the Brotherhood's most powerful figure who was disqualified from running in the country's 2012 election for president, has been the regime's point man on relations with Qatar, frequently flying there on unannounced visits.

Top Qatari officials say they are helping Egypt because they do not want to see the country's economy continue to sink.

However, Qatar, with its massive surplus of petrodollars, also appears keen to invest in Egypt on preferential terms not available to others, if recent media reports are to be believed.

Mr Morsi has denied that his government was offering preferred treatment to the Qataris and insisted in a television interview aired early on Monday that his country's relations with the Gulf nation were on par with those with countries such as Saudi Arabia.

Mr El Shater has repeatedly made similar assertions, but Egypt's media reports on the "special" relationshipcontinue.

The perception that Qatar enjoys a special status in Islamist-ruled Egypt was reinforced during the Islamic summit hosted by Cairo in this month, when organisers set aside an entrance for the exclusive use of heads of delegations - the emir in the case of Qatar. The only exception to the rule was the Qatari prime minister.

The latest of the media reports on Egypt's "special" relations with Qatar was published by the independent Al Watan newspaper this week. It claimed that Egypt's information minister Salah Abdel-Maqsoud, a leading Brotherhood figure, intended to sell or lease to Qatari investors the massive state TV and radio building in central Cairo as part of a development project to turn the relatively poor area around the Nile-side structure into an upscale residential and commercial complex.

Mr Abdel-Maqsoud denied the report, although he did say in an interview with the same newspaper a few days earlier that he would like most TV and radio operations to move to "media city", a cluster of studios and sets on the outskirts of the city.

More importantly, media reports have speculated on a secret deal to lease the Suez Canal to Qatar, something that Mr Morsi and Qatari leaders have described as "laughable". In the interview on Monday, Mr Morsi insisted that the international waterway would remain in Egyptian hands, but did not deny reports that Qataris wanted to invest in the area along the banks of the canal, possibly as a giant free industrial zone.

On Wednesday, an independent Cairo daily, El-Yum El-Sabea, or the Seventh Day, said Qatar was offering the Egyptians huge sums to lease key antiquity sites and run them as investment ventures.

On the surface, the idea appeared far-fetched. But the Supreme Council for Antiquities felt compelled to issue a statement yesterday describing as "baseless" the media reports that said an unidentified "Gulf state" wanted a five-year lease on the sites.

With the lack of transparency on the part of the Morsi government and the marginalisation of the foreign ministry by his foreign relations aides, it is difficult to gauge with any accuracy how much leverage Qatar has over Egypt's Islamist leaders and its plans for Egypt.

But Qatar's generosity toward Egypt is widely seen by non-Islamist Egyptians as seeking to establish a foothold in countries that have been swept by Arab Spring revolts and instituting a new order. Qatar was closely linked with the Brotherhood in Libya, arming and bankrolling their militias during the 2011 civil war and now supporting its party and TV channel. In Syria, the Qataris are thought to be among the main benefactors of the rebels fighting the regime of Bashar Al Assad, particularly those backed by the Brotherhood.

In Egypt, Qatar may be taking advantage of the nation's worst economic crisis in decades to gain clout, but it may soon demand lucrative investment opportunities in return for the grants and loans it has given to help the Arab nation stay afloat.
Source 
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Great Satan and the Zionist Entity: 'Arabs Swallow the Iranian Bait'

Great Satan and the Zionist Entity: 'Arabs Swallow the Iranian Bait'

By Faris Haidar (Al-Iraq News, Iraq)

February 26, 2013
Translated By Nicolas Dagher
Congratulations Arabs. After decades of independence, thanks to the folly of our rulers and the plotting of others, we find ourselves under the hammer of a new colonialism represented by the Persian ghoul. Amazingly, under the banner of religion, it is doing the impossible: restoring the glory of the Persian Empire. Its path is a fabricated hostility toward the Great Satan (America), and virtual hostility with the Zionist entity. And its passport to infiltrating our Arab world was the closure if the Israeli Embassy in Tehran and its replacement with the embassy of Palestine.
In the beginning of what is known as the Iranian Revolution and in the name of the resistance launched by the Iranian leadership, many sons of Arabism swallowed the Persian bait, and aided Iran's organization of control and hegemony over our Arab world. They proclaimed that the road to Jerusalem led through Baghdad as if Baghdad were like Washington in its support of the Zionist entity and animosity toward the Arab nation.
Since 1979, what have the Persians ever done to help Palestine and support the opposition and resistance in our Arab world?
Let us answer the questions many people are asking with facts clear enough for anyone willing to hear. Those who are blind to the truth are either participating in the Iranian scheme or are receiving short-term benefits they will little time to enjoy.
If Tehran's rulers were honest about wanting to stand with Arabs to reclaim their rights, they would have returned the Arab lands they have taken by force. The Arab Ahvaz is still under their control and they oppress the people there day and night. And they would have returned occupied Arab lands that comprise an area many times larger than that occupied by the Zionists.
If the rulers of Persia were honest about standing against the Zionists, they wouldn't have relied on them during their war against Iraq. The on July 18, 1981 crash of an Argentine aircraft in the former Soviet Union loaded with Zionist weapons for Tehran is proof of defense cooperation between Iranian and Israeli rulers, and exposes the lie of their hostility toward the Zionist entity.
If Tehran's rulers were truthful about the animosity they claim to feel toward the Great Satan, they would never have provided support for the occupations of Afghanistan and Iraq. Former Iran Vice President Mohammad-Ali Abtahihas said quite plainly that if it wasn't for us Iran, America would not have been able to occupy the countries. And conversely, the Americans, even as they were present in the country and after their supposed withdrawal, would never have allowed the mullahs of Qom and Tehran to control Iraq politically, economically and in terms of security.

If Iran was really truthful about its support for the Arabs and their causes, it would stop claiming Bahrain as an Iranian province, and they would stop appointing a Bahrain "representative" to the Majlis [Parliament].

Fans of Iran might argue that the Iranian-backed resistance and opposition supports Hezbullah, and see in this an example of the Qom and Tehran mullahs standing on the side of Arab rights.

Our answer is that that Hezbullah is part and parcel of Iran's system of hegemony over Arab countries. The idea of launching it was Iran's, its charter was written in Tehran, and its activities are executed through the Iranian leadership. Furthermore, all of the acrobatic operations Hezbullah has executed against the Zionist entity are part of a previously agreed-upon Persian-Zionist scheme.
Further evidence of Persia's avarice regarding our Arab world emerged a few days ago, when it came out that Iran considers Syria an Iranian province.Mehdi Taeb, a member of the supreme leader's inner circle and head of an organization fighting a "soft war," was quoted telling student members of the Basij militia, "Syria is the 35th province [of Iran] and a strategic province for us. If the enemy attacks and wants to appropriate either Syria orKhuzestan Province [western Iran], the priority is that we keep Syria ... If we keep Syria, we can get Khuzestan back too; but if we lose Syria, we cannot keep Tehran. 
That is the truth of Iranian support for the Arabs. It is "support" is based on interests that, far from being Arab, are purely Iranian. That explains why Tehran supports the Assad regime over the legal rights of the oppressed Syrian people. Tehran considers the potential fall of the Syrian regime to be synonymous with the fall of the Persian project in the region. Its support for the resistance has nothing to do with love for the opposition, and everything to do with achieving its expansionist aims in the region, which would be imperiled by the Syrian regime's fall.
So - have Mehdi Taeb's comments reached the "deaf."



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