Enab Baladi Issue # 107– Sun, Mar. 9, 2014

“Syria is the 35th province [of Iran] and a strategic province for us. If the enemy attacks us and wants to appropriate either Syria or Khuzestan (in southern Iran), the priority is that we keep Syria”.

That is what the Iranian Cleric Mahdi Taeb, head of Ammar  Strategic Base -an organization established to fight the “soft war” against the Islamic Republic of Iran- said a year ago. The statement patently revealed Tehran’s intentions of sectarian expansion in Damascus mainly after backing Assad forces with fighters and senior officers, and supporting Shiite groups in the area in entering a sectarian war launched by Assad.

Recently, Damascus neighbourhoods have been witnessing pro-regime rallies accompanied with Alawite Songs and Shiite hymns which openly express support of Al Assad and promising a wave of attacks on every “Sunni” and “Salafi”.

Today, a year later after Taeb’s statement, Tehran’s key ally quit hiding behind the mask of secularism and publicly unveiled its plans of allowing Shiite expansion in the area through its official media.

For the first time since its establishment, the official Syrian TV broadcasted a report about celebration of the anniversary of Sayeda Zainab’s Birthday, vieling its sectarian motives under the slogan Syria for All. Furthermore, Al Assad gave support and patronage to organizations aiming at cultivating Shiite influence among children.

The grand Mufti of Syria Ahmad Hassoun also attended Imam Al-Mahdi Scout which organizes lectures and plays which provoke old vendettas that are a thousand years old, in addition to conducting military training, unlike other typical scouting programmes.

These practices have been a part of the systematic agenda to tint Damascus with the black banners of Shiite, as it is the case in Beirut and Baghdad; whereas Al Assad regime is most willing to sacrifice its people to Iran.

As the heating atmosphere intensifies in Syria, calls by other involving parties are made for retaliation as a reaction to this illegitimate intervention in Syria, posing the threat that country is about to be ravaged by a long sectarian war throughout the coming years regardless of the destiny of Al Assad, mayor of Governorate 35.