Iran Continues to Bring in Military Reinforcements to Syria

File photo: Iranian militias’ training in Syria, including fighters for the Lebanese Hezbollah. (Syrian Observatory for Human Rights)
File photo: Iranian militias’ training in Syria, including fighters for the Lebanese Hezbollah. (Syrian Observatory for Human Rights)
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Iran Continues to Bring in Military Reinforcements to Syria

File photo: Iranian militias’ training in Syria, including fighters for the Lebanese Hezbollah. (Syrian Observatory for Human Rights)
File photo: Iranian militias’ training in Syria, including fighters for the Lebanese Hezbollah. (Syrian Observatory for Human Rights)

Iran continues to bring military reinforcements to Syria from Iraq, according to local sources, in parallel with a state of alert of the IRGC-affiliated militias in eastern Syria.

The past days witnessed the entrance of dozens of members from the Iraqi Popular Mobilization Forces.

Opposition local media revealed that IRGC military reinforcements of more than 50 Iraqi and Lebanese members crossed the Syrian-Iraqi border to Al Bukamal.

Well-informed sources told the Bladi News website that the members entered on Saturday and settled in a military headquarters of the IRGC near the Al Fayhaa Hospital in Al Bukamal and were then moved to Al-Quriyah and Al-Taybeh in the eastern countryside of Deir Ezzor.

Sources from the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights revealed that the Iranian militias leadership will send trained Afghan and Pakistani fighters to the region to train residents from east of the Euphrates.

The river line separating Iranian militias-held areas from SDF-held areas has witnessed suspicious movements recently, added the sources.

Moreover, local sources said that the Iranian militias have offered the tribal notables their assistance by recruiting their sons in exchange for many temptations while providing them with security cards and weapons.

In the past days, a leader from the Iranian militias and a number of the regime officers held several meetings with notables in the Al Bukamal.

The Iranian Revolutionary Guard announced its need to recruit nearly 1,000 individuals aged between 14 to 30 to the ranks of the formation, where it started admitting volunteers to their ranks in Deir Ezzor city and the villages of Hatlah, Marat, Al-Husseiniyah for monthly salaries of 1.5 million Syrian pounds.

The task of recruiting young men has been entrusted to several local commanders affiliated with Iranian militias, added the Observatory.

The volunteers later will be moved to Damascus and then to Lebanon by the Lebanese Hezbollah militia to send them to Palestine and join the fight against Israel.

SOHR sources have reported that the Iranian-backed militias transferred more than 300 fighters from the Special Task Force and other forces from Deir Ezzor, Homs, and Aleppo to Al-Qunaitrah, Rif Dimashq, and the border with the occupied Golan.

Among those transferred were dozens of fighters who were urgently trained in Deir Ezzor, specifically within the Ayash camp by IRGC.

The SOHR revealed that the Lebanese Hezbollah and the “Syrian Resistance for the Liberation of the Golan,” have ordered their fighters to stay on high alert within their positions in the western countryside of Damascus, at the borders with Lebanon and in the occupied Golan.

They brought in military and logistical reinforcement to fortify these positions, moved weapons to safer places, and put on high alert to deal with any possible Israeli attacks.



Zelenskiy Says Post-war Security Guarantee Would Need at Least 200,000 Peacekeepers

Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskiy speaks during the 55th annual meeting of the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos, Switzerland, January 21, 2025. (Reuters)
Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskiy speaks during the 55th annual meeting of the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos, Switzerland, January 21, 2025. (Reuters)
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Zelenskiy Says Post-war Security Guarantee Would Need at Least 200,000 Peacekeepers

Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskiy speaks during the 55th annual meeting of the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos, Switzerland, January 21, 2025. (Reuters)
Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskiy speaks during the 55th annual meeting of the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos, Switzerland, January 21, 2025. (Reuters)

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy, who is seeking a meeting with US President Donald Trump, said on Tuesday that a contingent of at least 200,000 European peacekeepers would be needed as part of any settlement to end the war with Russia.

The Ukrainian leader, speaking at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland a day after Trump returned to power following months of promises to end the war in Ukraine quickly, also urged European leaders to do more to defend the continent.

The prospect of a rapid settlement has focused minds in Kyiv and Europe on the urgent need for security guarantees to prevent any future Russian attack, with the idea of peacekeeping contingent force circulating.

"From all the Europeans? 200,000, it's a minimum. It's a minimum, otherwise it's nothing," Zelenskiy said when asked about the idea of a peacekeeping mission on an interview panel after delivering his speech.

Zelenskiy said Ukraine was working to set up a meeting between him and Trump.

"The teams have been working on a meeting, they are currently in the process," Zelenskiy said about those efforts.

Trump, who returned to office on Monday, has said he will stop the war in Ukraine swiftly, without saying how.

Zelenskiy said Ukraine would not agree to Russian demands that it drastically reduce the size of its military, predicting that Russian President Vladimir Putin would demand Ukraine cut its armed forces to a fifth of their size.

"This is what he wants. We will not allow this to happen," Zelenskiy said.

In his speech, Zelenskiy said Europe must make itself a strong global player, able to guarantee peace and security for itself and for others. He suggested Europe had less influence over Washington because the United States viewed its allies' contribution to security as lacking.

"Does anyone in the United States worry that Europe might abandon them someday – might stop being their ally? The answer is no," Zelenskiy said.

He said that Europeans needed to devise a united security and defense policy and alluded to a pre-inauguration remark by Trump, who proposed a massive hike in defense spending for NATO members to 5% of GDP.

"If it takes 5% of GDP to cover defense, then so be it, 5% it is. And there is no need to play with people's emotions that defense should be compensated at the expense of medicine or pensions – that's not fair," Zelenskiy said.