The commander-in-chief of Iran's Revolutionary Guard, Gen. Mohammad Ali Jafari, said Sunday that members of his elite special operations unit, the Quds Force, are present in Syria and Lebanon, but only to provide counsel in military issues."Because of the special situation in Lebanon and Syria, some members of the Quds Force, who are responsible for foreign operations, are in these countries. This does not mean that we have a military presence there," Jafari said
According to him, Iran dispatched advisors to Damascus and Beirut several times.
Jafari also said that Iran is proud of defending Syria, a member of anti-Israeli resistance, by providing them with experience while other countries are not shy of supporting terrorist groups as the so-called "Free Syrian Army."
However, this is the first time the Guards publicly acknowledge the presence of Quds members in Syria.
The Quds force is a special unit responsible for all extra territorial operations and is particularly active in the Middle East.
Last month, the Free Syrian Army said that Al-Quds Force's commander, Maj. Gen. Qassem Suleimani, who has made several trips to Damascus to meet with Assad and his top commanders since January of this year, was killed in Damascus bombing along with six members of Assad's inner circle.
At that time Damascus and Tehran denied this news, With Iran saying that no forces are present outside Tehran.
Meanwhile, a Free Syrian Army spokesman told AFP news that after Col. Abdel Jabbar from the Free Syrian Army held a Skype discussion with international peace envoy Lakhdar Brahimi, the Free Syrian Army believes Brahimi's mission is pointless and doomed to fail.
"We are confident that Brahimi will fail like the other envoys before him, but we will not be responsible for this failure," Jabbar, the Free Syrian Army chief of Aleppo province in north Syria, said by telephone.
"We discussed the general situation in Syria, including the destruction caused by the regime," he said, adding that the talks are "preliminary."
On the ground, violence that raged from early Sunday killed at least 70 people, mostly civilians. The data was provided by the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.
Activists also said that 20 bodies, including a woman's, were found by residents in the neighbouring district of Tadamon that had been overrun by Assad regime forces.
We don't know why Iran announced that it has figures from Al Quds forces in Syria, which is considered to be the most important force in the Revolutionary Guard and the Iran's military wing abroad.
Apparently, Iran is not concerned about the reaction of this statement at the international level. This is unlike the eagerness of the international community, which despite the massacres and killings, says it does not want to support free Syrian Army with weapons.
The important point here is that the new international envoy communicated, for the first time, with the military opposition. He is not like Annan, who met with political opposition only. This is an achievement in favor of Free Syrian Army.
Today News stated that a high-ranking officer, Yousef Assad, a relative of President Bashar al-Assad, has announced his defection from the Damascus regime.
Although there is a video confirming this, I heard from private sources that the Free Syrian Army intelligence is suspicious about the honesty of this man. He is under the observation of the Free Syrian Army until truthfulness is proven.
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