Syria Today | Syria and Iran boost defence cooperation

Syria and Iran boost defence cooperation

Syria and Iran signed an agreement to bolster defence cooperation during a three-day visit by Iranian Defence Minister Ahmad Vahidi to Damascus between December 8 and 11.

Under the agreement, which was signed by Vahidi and his Syrian counterpart Ali Habib, the two countries will strengthen military cooperation to improve their defence systems against the “common threat” of Israel, Iran’s state-run Press TV reported on December 11.

“We will jointly confront any attack on Damascus or Tehran,” Vahidi said, according to a report published by Iran’s semi-official Fars News Agency on December 12.

He also described Iran and Syria as “strategic allies in establishing tranquility and stability in the region”.

“Today a new power pole is being formed in the world which secures the independence, freedom and interests of nations,” Vahidi said. “Iran and Syria play a unique and very good role in this process.”

The agreement came about at a time of heightened tension between Tehran and Washington, just before members of the US Congress voted on December 15 to impose new sanctions on Iran over its controversial nuclear programme. While in Damascus, Vahidi warned that Tehran would strike Israel’s nuclear sites if Tel Aviv attacks its nuclear facilities, according to reports by Press TV and Al Manar TV, a satellite news channel run by the Iranian-backed Lebanese faction Hezbollah.

In recent years, Iran and Syria have signed a number of defence agreements. In June 2006 and May 2008 the two countries made similar comments, stating that they were boosting military cooperation in the face of the “common threat” posed by Israel.

Local analysts attach little weight to the content of the agreements, the details of which are rarely made public.

“The agreement is nothing special, it’s no different from the previous defence agreements signed between the two countries over the past few years,” Thabet Salem, a Syrian political analyst told Syria Today. “It is, of course, yet again more proof of good Syrian- Iranian relations, but in terms of substance it adds nothing new.”

Little was reported in Syria’s local media about the visit. According to analysts referred to in a report published in the Christian Science Monitor on December 15, Syria’s relative silence about the agreement comes as it tries to hold on to its newfound position on the world political stage, a role it struggled to carve out for itself during its years of isolation under the policies of former US President George W. Bush.

“The defence agreement came about on Iran’s initiative,” Murhaf Jouejati, professor at the National Defense University in Washington, said. “The Syrians were reluctant to use the clear language [on mutual assistance] that Iran wanted to use.”

According to Elias Samo, professor of international relations at the University of Aleppo, however, the signing of another defence agreement further underscores Iran’s importance to Syria.

“For Syria, the development of a strategic alliance with Iran is partly a political statement, a loud and clear declaration that ties with Iran are not a bargaining chip or for sale on the bidding block,” he said. “Ties with Iran stand or fall on their own merits, depending on how they serve each side’s national interests. They are not subject to American, Israeli or Arab states dictates or demands.”