Iran state media deletes IRGC comments on Syrian presence

MESOP / FARDS NEWS 8.5.2014 – Iran’s Fars News Agency deleted comments made by a commander in the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (ICRG) on May 4^th that Iran has a military presence in Syria, Radio Free Europe reported Tuesday.

“Today we fight in Syria for interests such as the Islamic Revolution,” the Fars agency, which is close to the ICRG, reported Commander Hossein Homedani as saying. Within hours, the report was deleted from the Fars website, which also quoted Hamedani as saying the Syrian government is no longer “at the risk of collapse.” The cached version of the original Fars report is available here.

Iran has officially denied its soldiers are fighting for Syrian President Bashar al-Assad despite numerous reports in its own state media. This week, official Iranian news outlets reported that at least four IRGC members were killed in recent weeks defending the Shiite Sitt Zaynab shrine outside Damascus. The recent agreement between Syrian rebel groups and government troops in Old Homs included a provision whereby Syrian rebels would release a female Iranian prisoner.

On Wednesday, Iranian media cited a recent study by an Iranian parliamentarian that credits “Iran’s transfer of experience to Syria on organizing public forces and training more than 150,000 Syrian voluntary young forces,” as key in turning the tide of the Syrian conflict in favor of Bashar al-Assad’s government. http://www.farsnews.com/newstext.php?nn=13930214001089