Iranian Arms Supplied To Assad Regime Via Civilian Airplanes

Iran is using its airliners to send weapons and explosives to the regime of Bashar al-Assad and Hezbullah in Lebanon, said the German television channel, ZDF. Citing sources within Western intelligence services, ZDF said that the transfer of the arms shipments were made via Yas Air and Iran Air companies, which are supposed to carry passengers.

Turkish security officials have discovered, according to ZDF, weapons and explosives on board of a Yas Air aircraft in March 2011 whose final destination was Damascus.

According to the sources of German television, the Revolutionary Guards stand behind this operation. The type of weapons sent to Syria has not been specified.

On Monday, the British newspaper The Guardian reported that a senior official of the Revolutionary Guards had acknowledged that Iranian forces were operating in Syria to support the regime of Assad. According to the Guardian, Ismail Gha’ani, vice commander of the al-Quds force, the armed wing of the Revolutionary Guards, said in an interview with the semi-official ISNA News Agency: “If the Republic Islamic was not present in Syria, massacres have been taken in a much broader scale. ” “Before we intervene, too many people were killed by the opposition, but through the physical and nonphysical presence of the Islamic republic, great massacres have been avoided”.

According to the Guardian, the interview published last weekend, was removed from ISNA website.