Iran pressuring Syria to grant it concessions similar to Russia, sources say

Iran is pressuring the Syrian regime of Bashar Al-Assad to obtain sovereign concessions and agreements in return for contributing to resolving the suffocating economic crisis afflicting the areas under the regime’s control, Western diplomats said.

Asharq Al-Awsat newspaper quoted diplomats as saying that Tehran had surprised the Assad regime with draft agreements during preparations for the visit of Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi.

“One of the agreements included that Iranians be treated in Syrian hospitals, scientific institutions and have property rights, and so on, as Syrian nationals, and that if they committed a crime, they would be tried before the Iranian judiciary, not the Syrian judiciary,” the sources said.

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A diplomatic source added that the Syrian economic crisis is the worst in a decade, and Iran wants to benefit from that by obtaining major sovereign concessions amid Russia’s preoccupation with the Ukraine war, and its long-term consolidation of influence in the face of the escalation of Israeli military pressure in Syria.

According to the sources, another agreement is similar to the one signed between the Assad regime and Moscow at the end of 2015 regarding the establishment of Russian military bases in Hmeimim and Tartous, which gave wide military and diplomatic privileges to the Russians, including not to try them in Syrian courts.

Since 2011, Iran has supported the Syrian regime by sending militias to fight alongside its army against opposition forces, in addition to providing financial support and oil shipments, in exchange for taking over vital facilities in Syria.

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