Via Jerusalem Post:
The deputy commander of Iran’s elite Quds Force militia admitted for the first time late Sunday that the Revolutionary Guard’s special unit has participated in military operations in Syria in support of president Bashar Assad’s regime.
Esmail Ghani said the Quds (‘Jerusalem’) Force had played a “physical and nonphysical” role in Syria.
Ghani made his comments in a short interview with Iran’s semiofficial ISNA news agency, which removed the text from its website shortly after posting it.
The Quds Force, which reports directly to Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, is an elite branch of the Revolutionary Guard, established in the 1990s to work outside Iran’s borders, including supporting terrorist organizations, particularly Hezbollah.
Ghani’s admission that the Quds Force is involved in Syria also came after forces loyal to Assad killed at least 108 people and injured 300 more in Houla in Homs province on Friday.
While the Syrian authorities denied any involvement in the massacre, blaming it on “terrorists,” Ghani told ISNA Iran’s “physical and nonphysical” presence in Syria had prevented even more bloodshed.
“If the Islamic Republic were not present in Syria, the killing of citizens would be greater,” Ghani said.
The Revolutionary Guard deputy commander added that “despite all the drawbacks of the Syrian government,” Syria’s “geography of resistance” and pressure from Israel and America meant that the Assad regime should not fall.
After ISNA removed the interview with Ghani, none of Iran’s other official news outlets reported his comments on Monday.
Iran’s official news agency, IRNA, cited Foreign Ministry spokesman Ramin Mehmanparsat as alleging the bomb blasts in Syria had been “engineered” by “certain countries” opposed to stability.
Mehmanparsat blamed Israel as being at “the root of the problems,” adding that “the Zionist regime’s weakening position in the region” had led to “provocation.”