The Iranian regime is planning to create another proxy force in Syria like the Lebanese Hezbollah that includes foreign fighters to reduce casualties by Revolutionary Guards (IRGC) fighting against the Syrian people.
According to reports by a Syrian opposition news outlet, the new force that will be a ‘Parallel Army’ to the Syrian army will include Iraqi and Afghan nationals who are on the Iranian regime’s payroll.
The Iranian regime pays each fighter about $400 a month for joining the force and promises that they will be rewarded with Syrian citizenship after a certain period of time.
According to the report, the new group will be similar to the Hezbollah in Lebanon, and it will fight alongside Hezbollah and Syrian regime forces.
Recruiting Iraqis and Afghans may be part of an Iranian strategy to send poor foot soldiers to the Syrian Civil War at a time when the Syrian regime is finding it difficult to recruit new fighters to attack opposition forces.
A video obtained by CNN last week from Syrian rebels shows a prisoner that doesn’t speak Arabic, but mutters in Dari, the language spoken mainly in Afghanistan.
The prisoner says: “My name is Sayed Ahmad Hussaini. The Iranians pay people like me to come here [Syria] and fight. I am from Afghanistan and I am an immigrant in Iran. The Iranians brought us to Syria to fight”. “I don’t want to fight anymore,” he adds.
He says he wants to go home and that he was paid about $500 a month to fight.
There are many Afghan immigrants in Iran, trying to find shelter from the decades of war that have torn apart their land. He says he was trained and then sent to assist the regime.
The National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI) published information on October 13 regarding a confidential report obtained from inside the regime detailing Khamenei’s strategy for Syria and other Arab Countries.
According to the document, the Iranian regime’s strategy continues investing in and keeping Bashar al-Assad’s regime in power at all costs.
Khamenei has emphasized that “the Iraq, Syria, Lebanon and Yemen axis” is crucial “for the Islamic Republic of Iran and there should be no retreat in this regard” and that all “necessary measures” should be implemented to this end. It is through this axis that “we can encircle the rest of the Arab countries, especially Saudi Arabia and Jordan,” and put pressure on countries such as Egypt.