Iran helps Syria to put down protests

BlaasForRafa

I suppose it shouldn't really come as a surprise, what with one tyrannical regime helping another. Still the news that Iranian government forces are getting heavily involved is not a good one for the prospects of their being any hope of democracy coming to Syria. Is it time for stronger measures to be taken by the UN?

Iran sends forces to aid Syrian regime

Manpower is only one of the forms of assistance Iran has sent to Syria, the report said, with the Islamist government sending weapons, riot gear and sophisticated surveillance equipment that allows Syrian authorities to trace and find opposition members through Facebook and Twitter accounts.

The surveillance system has reportedly prompted the arrest of hundreds of Syrians in recent weeks, two U.S. officials and a diplomat from an allied nation told the Washington Post, all speaking on condition of anonymity due to the sensitivity of the information.

The diplomat said that Iranian military trainers have been brought to Syria's capital Damascus to teach security forces techniques that were used against the "Green Movement" in 2009. Protests to the allegedly corrupt election of current President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad were met with brutal violence from Iranian security forces.

Nodin

More sanctions could be imposed, but it's hard to see what to do. Any outside military intervention would undermine the dissidents. They don't seem armed either, which is a problem.

wes

Very, very stupid move by Iran, the Sunni Arab states will start to see the Syrian protests in a more and more sectarian context imho. Iran's will just stoke the existing sectarian problems in the region.

SamHarris

wes wrote: »

Very, very stupid move by Iran, the Sunni Arab states will start to see the Syrian protests in a more and more sectarian context imho. Iran's will just stoke the existing sectarian problems in the region.

Whilst I agree with you, I think the leadership throughout the middle east (particularly the Gulf states) have seen these revolutions through the prism of sectarianism since the begining. Nearly everything the Saudi's do is with an eye towards the Iranian state.

There is little or nothing the international community can do in this situation - Russia will block any UN move, the West will not (and most definitly should not) move without (at the very least) a UN mandate, supported by all other Arab states. Since Syria has been so long a pariah on the international stage, few people have any real strings attached to even try and coax a more moderate response.

Nodin

Evidently the subtle approach of shooting people in the head has been abandoned for a time.

Syrian government troops have heavily bombarded Rastan, near Homs, in the centre of the country, killing at least 15 people, activists say.
More than 50 people have been killed in Rastan since a military operation there started at the weekend, reports say.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-13628776

...and in such an enviroment, one can't hold out too much hope for this either.

The Syrian authorities have announced a full inquiry into the death of a 13-year-old boy who has become a symbol for the continuing uprising against President Bashar al-Assad.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-13622959

SamHarris

Nodin wrote: »

Evidently the subtle approach of shooting people in the head has been abandoned for a time.


http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-13628776

...and in such an enviroment, one can't hold out too much hope for this either.


http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-13622959

It's a little sad how little play Syria is getting, not just in the media, but in international discourse. Without the West being somehow involved (either by supporting the oppressed or the oppressy) it seems no one cares all that much.

One interesting difference between say Egypt and Yemen and Syria is how interconnected its military is into the dictatorial powerstructure. In Egypt it was possible for the military to remain powerful and a coherent entity following the collapse of the government, as they remained in many ways seperate. According to an interview I saw (I believe it was with Fareed and Friedman on CNN) if the government of Assad were to collapse it would almost certainly take the army with it, leaving no institutions which can control the entire territory.

You could be looking at another Iraq (5 years of civil war/chaos) rather than the relative stability of post-revolution Egypt.

Ping Chow Chi

wes wrote: »

Very, very stupid move by Iran, the Sunni Arab states will start to see the Syrian protests in a more and more sectarian context imho. Iran's will just stoke the existing sectarian problems in the region.

I think that the Sunni states already see the protests in general in a sectarian context, thats why Sunni Saudi helpped crush the mainly Shiite uprising in Bhrain.

wes

Ping Chow Chi wrote: »

I think that the Sunni states already see the protests in general in a sectarian context, thats why Sunni Saudi helpped crush the mainly Shiite uprising in Bhrain.

You are probably right, the other possibility is that, they are know the protests are non-sectarian in nature, but are playing it up, so that they can be more easily surpressed.

BlaasForRafa

wes wrote: »

You are probably right, the other possibility is that, they are know the protests are non-sectarian in nature, but are playing it up, so that they can be more easily surpressed.

Also, if the Iranians help put down the protests, then the Syrians will owe them in the future, especially when it comes to facilitating supplies of weapons to Irans hezbollah clients in south Lebanon.

grizzly

SamHarris wrote: »

Russia will block any UN move

Why is this? Because of their arms trade with Iran?

loldog

It wasn't so long ago the Shah's troops were firing on protestors in Tehran. How the wheel turns.

.

Jonny7

grizzly wrote: »

Why is this? Because of their arms trade with Iran?

Russian business in the Middle East is being hampered by these annoying uprisings.