Iran boosts support to Syria

Iran is boosting its support for President Bashar al-Assad, sending top military advisers to Damascus to gather intelligence and train Syrian troops, sources with knowledge of the movements have said.

The increase in assistance from Syria's long standing ally reportedly coincided with the peace talks at Geneva II, allowing the government to attend the negotiations with sufficient confidence in its military capability that it did not feel the need to make concessions.

Several "hundred" military specialists, including senior commanders from the Quds Force, the elite foreign-operations wing of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) have been to deployed to Syria in recent months, Iranian sources and security experts have said.

A recently retired senior IRGC commander told Reuters there are now at least 60 to 70 Quds force commanders on the ground in Syria at any given time.

The primary role of these forces is to gather intelligence and manage the logistics of battle for the Syrian regime as it approaches its fourth year of fighting a rebel insurgency.

"They are there pulling strings in the background," said an Iran analyst with Five Dimensions Consultant. "Well placed sources tell me 'the syrian army by now is a joke, they are in charge of the minor things. Without the Iranian they would have collapsed by now'."

Even prior to the Syrian war, Iran had between 2,000 and 3,000 IRGC officers stationed in Syria, helping to train local troops and managing supply routes of arms and money to neighbouring Lebanon.

That number has dramatically increased throughout the war, and by December of last year Iran was thought to have approximately 10,000 operatives in Syria, the analyst said. This includes thousands of Iranian paramilitary Basij fighters as well as Arabic speakers including Shi'ites from Iraq.

This recent surge of support was in part a decision strongly promoted by Qasem Suleimani, the head of the Quds force, to exploit the outbreak of infighting between rebel fighters and the al-Qaeda inspired Islamic State of Iraq and Sham (ISIS).

"Soleimani saw a perfect window of opportunity to send in more forces and clean up once and for all," the analyst said. "This caused disagreement between Hassan Rohani, the president, who was concerned a boost in Iranian support to Syria would damage the unfolding nuclear deal with the United States."

So the two schools of thought compromised, sending in a significant, but smaller number of troops than Mr Soleimani originally envisioned.

Iran sees the survival of the Syrian government as being crucial to it longevity of its own regime.

It's only consistent ally since the 1979 Islamic revolution, Syria provides a crucial thoroughfare to Hizbollah, who it sees as first line of defence against Israel. Iranian leaders have cited Syria as being Iran's "35th province", with President Bashar al-Assad's Alawite minority led regime being a crucial buffer against the influence of Saudi Arabia and the United States.

The boost coincides with an increase in the number of Shia volunteers in neighbouring Lebanon signing up to fight in Syria with the Iranian backed militia Hizbollah.

Hizbollah commanders and residents in the stronghold town of Hermel in the Bekaa valley have told The Telegraph there have been a surge in recruits entering Syria, particularly to fight rebel groups in the strategically important town of Yabroud, close to the border with Lebanon.

Iran is estimated to have spent several billion dollars already in supporting the regime in Syria, despite suffering from biting economic sanctions.

In the summer of last year Syrian officials said that Iran was to provide $3.6 billion in financial aid, on top of a $1 billion credit facility that it had provided in January.