Iran’s Engagement in Syrian Conflic t. Causes and Consequences

• Authors: Rafał OŻAROWSKI
• Languages of publication: EN

Abstracts

EN

Since the 2011, Iran is deeply engaged in Syrian war in order to support and keep President Bashar al-Assad in power. Firstly, Iran started with political and diplomatic support and later turned into military and economic assistance. At the moment, it is believed that Syria is financially sustained by Iran. The main reason that Iran has determined for wide-scale engagement was the existential need for maintaining and then expanding its own regional power influences in the Middle East. If Syrian regime collapsed, Iran would be dealt with a big dilemma and it would loss Syria as a key military and political ally. Thus, Iran would have cut off his transit route to supply weapons to Lebanon for Hezbollah, as these transports still go across Syrian territory. It would surely diminish the Iranian position in the Middle East. Preventing such a case, Iran has been determined to engage in the Syrian conflict to a great extent, which, as a consequence, is charged with heavy costs. Although there is no exact data of Iran’s expenses for the Syrian War, it is supposed that this is in the range of 6 billion USD to 35 billion USD. At the moment, it can be said that engagement in Syrian war was beneficial for Iran, mainly in political sphere, yet the full consequences of this involvement will only be known in many months.

Keywords

EN

Syria; Bashar al-Assad; Iran; Hezbollah; the so-called Islamic State

• Publisher: Uniwersytet im. Adama Mickiewicza w Poznaniu
• Journal: Przegląd Strategiczny
• Year: 2018
• Issue: 11
• Pages: 201-210

Dates

published

2018-11-30

Contributors

author

Rafał OŻAROWSKI

References

• Ansari A., Bassiri Tabrizi A. (2016) The View from Tehran, in: Understanding Iran’s Role in the Syrian Conflict, (eds.) A. Bassiri Tabrizi, R. Pantucci, https://rusi.org/sites/default/files/201608_op_understanding_irans_role_in_the_syrian_conflict_0.pdf (12.06.2018).
• Djalili M.-R., Kellner T. (2014), Iran’s Syria policy in the wake of the ‘Arab Springs, “Turkish Review”, Vol. 4, No. 4.
• Ehteshami A. (2002), The Foreign Policy of Iran, in: The Foreign Policies of Middle East States, (eds.) R. Hinnebusch, A. Ehteshami, London.
• Fidlis A. T. (2012), Roots of Alawite-Sunni Rivalry in Syria, „Middle East Policy”, Vol. XIX, No. 2.
• Fulton W., Holliday J., Wyer S. (2013), Iranian Strategy in Syria, http://www.understandingwar.org/report/iranian-strategy-syria (12.06.2018).
• Goodarzi J. M. (2006), Syria and Iran. Diplomatic Alliance and Power Politics in the Middle East, London.
• Kam E. (2017), Iranian Military Intervention in Syria: A New Approach, „Strategic Asssessment”, Vol. 20, No. 2.
• Keynoush B. (2012), At Non-Aligned Helm, Iran Will Drive its Own Agenda, https://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/originals/2012/al-monitor/will-iran-be-able-to-lead-nam.html (12.06.2018).
• More Than 1000 Iranian Fighters Killed in Syrian Conflict (2016), https://www.rferl.org/a/iran-1000-fighters-in-syria/28133349.html (12.06.2018).
• Nadimi F. (2016), Iran’s Afghan and Pakistani Proxies: In Syria and Beyond, „Policy Watch” 2667, Washington Institute for Near East Policy, http://www.washingtoninstitute.org/policy-analysis/view/irans-afghan-and-pakistani-proxies-in-syria-and-beyond (12.06.2018).
• New Page in Iran-Syria Economic Relations (2018), “Financial Tribune”, https://financialtribune.com/articles/economy-business-and-markets/57826/new-page-in-iran-syria-economic-relations.
• Ożarowski R. (2017), Hizballah Involvement in the Syrian Conflict, „European Journal of Transformation Studies”, Vol. 5, No. 1.
• Rafizadeh M. (2015), $6–$35 Billion Annually to Assad: Stronger Iran, Mightier Assad?, https://www.huffingtonpost.com/majid-rafizadeh/6-35-billions-annually-to_b_7890164.html (12.06.2018).
• Rafizadeh M. (2016), Implications of growing Iran-Syria economic relations, http://english.alarabiya.net/en/views/news/middle-east/2016/09/30/How-Iran-is-gradually-owning-Syria-economically.html (12.06.2018).
• Syrian war: All you need to know about the Astana talks (2017), http://www.aljazeera.com/news/2017/10/syrian-war-astana-talks-171029160554816.html (12.06.2018).
• Syria’s Assad depending on Iran financial aid (2014), http://www.middleeasteye.net/news/syriasassad-depending-iran-financial-aid-392275455 (12.06.2018).
• Yacoubian M. (2007), Syria’s Alliance with Iran. “Peace Brief”, https://www.usip.org/publications/2007/05/syrias-alliance-iran (12.06.2018).
• Yolcu F. H. (2016), Iran’s Involvement with Syrian Civil War: Background, Reasons and Alternatives, “Bilgi”, Vol. 18, No. 2.

Identifiers

DOI

10.14746/ps.2018.1.14