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Khamenei Senior Advisor: Soleimani Established 82 Brigades in Syria, Iraq

In this file photo, Iran's Khamenei is seen greeting Soleimani (C) and Safavi (R).
In this file photo, Iran's Khamenei is seen greeting Soleimani (C) and Safavi (R).
    London, Tehran - Asharq Al-Awsat
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Khamenei Senior Advisor: Soleimani Established 82 Brigades in Syria, Iraq

In this file photo, Iran's Khamenei is seen greeting Soleimani (C) and Safavi (R).
In this file photo, Iran's Khamenei is seen greeting Soleimani (C) and Safavi (R).

Major General Yahya Rahim Safavi, a top military adviser to the Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, said that late Quds Force commander Qassem Soleimani had succeeded in establishing 82 fighting brigades in each of Syria and Iraq.

The taskforces, according to Safavi, include fighters from multiple nationalities.

Making his remarks at a press conference on the one-year anniversary since Soleimani’s killing in a US drone strike near Baghdad, Safavi confirmed that 60 brigades that are 70,000 fighters strong were established in Syria.

Multinational militias fighting under the banner of the Quds Force, Iran’s arm for foreign operations, are believed to make up the backbone of Soleimani’s brigades.

During the course of its involvement in Syria, Iran has managed to establish the Liwa Fatemiyoun (Fatimid Banner), comprised of Shiites from Afghanistan, Liwa Zainebiyoun (Zainab Brigade), comprised of Shiites from Pakistan, and Liwa Heydariyoun, comprised of Shiites from Iraq.

Safavi described his country's move to establish dozens of armed militias across the region as “converting the threat into an opportunity, under the strategic management of the Soleimani school.”

He noted that the presence of these militias alongside conventional armies in Iraq and Syria presented a “difficult challenge, but Soleimani showed flexibility in that area.”

In his address, the senior adviser recounted Soleimani’s role in Iraq, Syria, Yemen and Lebanon and in fighting the US and its allies in the region.

He also pointed out that Soleimani had conducted “strategic” diplomatic discussions with the heads of states in Russia, Turkey, Iraq and Afghanistan.

Safavi also reaffirmed Iran’s determination to stage operations against US presence in the region, identifying the region extending from the eastern Mediterranean to western Asia and South America as a “resistance front.”

He urged younger generations to adopt Soleimani's school of thought, claiming: “The Soleimani school has caused a political and military defeat for US in the occupation of Iraq and Afghanistan.”

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Iran Says Could Abandon Nuclear Weapons But Has Conditions

A sample of the surveillance cameras that monitor the Iranian nuclear facilities presented at a press conference in Vienna. (Reuters)
A sample of the surveillance cameras that monitor the Iranian nuclear facilities presented at a press conference in Vienna. (Reuters)
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Iran Says Could Abandon Nuclear Weapons But Has Conditions

A sample of the surveillance cameras that monitor the Iranian nuclear facilities presented at a press conference in Vienna. (Reuters)
A sample of the surveillance cameras that monitor the Iranian nuclear facilities presented at a press conference in Vienna. (Reuters)

Iran on Saturday hinted it would be willing to negotiate on a nuclear agreement with the upcoming administration of US President-elect Donald Trump, but that it has conditions.
Last Thursday, the UN atomic watchdog's 35-nation Board of Governors passed a resolution ordering Iran to urgently improve cooperation with the agency and requesting a “comprehensive” report aimed at pressuring Iran into fresh nuclear talks.
Ali Larijani, advisor to Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, said Iran and the US are now in a new position concerning the nuclear file.
In a post on X, he said, “If the current US administration say they are only against Iran’s nuclear weapons, they must accept Iran’s conditions and provide compensation for the damages caused.”

He added, “The US should accept the necessary conditions... so that a new agreement can be reached.”
Larijani stated that Washington withdrew from the JCPOA, thus causing damage to Iran, adding that his country started increasing its production of 60% enriched uranium.
The Iran nuclear accord, formally known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), was reached to limit the Iranian nuclear program in exchange for sanctions relief.
The deal began unraveling in 2018, when Washington, under Trump’s first administration, unilaterally withdrew from the accord and re-imposed a sanction regime of “maximum pressure” on Tehran.
In retaliation, Iran has rapidly ramped up its nuclear activities, including by increasing its stockpiles of enriched uranium to 60% — close to the 90% threshold required to develop a nuclear bomb.
It also began gradually rolling back some of its commitments by increasing its uranium stockpiles and enriching beyond the 3.67% purity -- enough for nuclear power stations -- permitted under the deal.
Since 2021, Tehran has significantly decreased its cooperation with the IAEA by deactivating surveillance devices to monitor the nuclear program and barring UN inspectors.
Most recently, Iran escalated its confrontations with the Agency by announcing it would launch a series of “new and advanced” centrifuges. Its move came in response to a resolution adopted by the United Nations nuclear watchdog that censures Tehran for what the agency called lack of cooperation.
Centrifuges are the machines that enrich uranium transformed into gas by rotating it at very high speed, increasing the proportion of fissile isotope material (U-235).
Shortly after the IAEA passed its resolution last Thursday, Tehran spoke about the “dual role” of IAEA’s chief, Raphael Grossi.
Chairman of the Iranian Parliamentary National Security and Foreign Policy Committee, Ebrahim Azizi said, “The statements made by Grossi in Tehran do not match his actions in Vienna.”
And contrary to the statements of Azizi, who denied his country’s plans to build nuclear weapons, Tehran did not originally want to freeze its uranium stockpile enriched to 60%
According to the IAEA’s definition, around 42 kg of uranium enriched to 60% is the amount at which creating one atomic weapon is theoretically possible. The 60% purity is just a short, technical step away from weapons-grade levels of 90%.
Spokesperson and deputy head of Iran’s Atomic Energy Organization, Behrouz Kamalvandi, said on Friday that IAEA inspectors were scheduled to come immediately after the meeting of the Board of Governors to evaluate Iran’s capacity, “with those capacities remaining for a month without any interruption in enrichment at 60% purity.”
Iran’s news agency, Tasnim, quoted Kamalvandi as saying that “the pressures resulting from the IAEA resolution are counterproductive, meaning that they increase our ability to enrich.”
He added: “Currently, not only have we not stopped enrichment, but we have orders to increase the speed, and we are gradually working on that."