BBC Persian, an important independent source of news for Iranians inside Iran where media freedoms are restricted, published an article on the sensitive subject of Tehran’s endgame in the Syrian war. The argument put forward is that no one can deny that Assad owes his continued rule in Damascus to Tehran’s forceful intervention on his behalf. The paper says that while Assad’s practical need for Iran is obvious, the case of Tehran’s heavy investment in the Syrian civil war – which some have predicted will ultimately become Iran’s Vietnam – is questionable.
Iran’s military intervention in Syria is the first “systematic” meddling in a foreign country and driven by two nominal objectives: to safeguard Shia holy sites in Syria and to protect against anti-Iran forces by engaging them away from the homeland as part of a policy of “strategic depth.” This has been repeated again and again by top Iranian officials who argue “if we don’t fight our enemies in Syria we will have to fight them here in Iran.” But the paper rightly points out that Iran’s intervention in Syria was by choice and not out of necessity. It concludes that the considerable financial costs of the Iranian intervention in Syria is characterized by the leadership in Tehran as necessary in order to protect Iran, which the paper rightly argues is at best a debatable logic.
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