a very close ally do not just. target it off where his last hezbollah it s also an ally of syria do almost he s would love to hear this he asked so it is a link between ourselves and syria. this true year that if about what you want to hear how do you want us and like ourselves and syria. hezbollah is hostile towards israel you see us at how you get on this route that you had to was. maintaining those links with lebanese shia organization hezbollah is therefore a necessity the political and military group which iran co-founded in the early one nine hundred eighty s. is to this day an ally and an. essential tool in the latter s resistance to israel . i m.
syria. when. so to defend its borders iran openly sent soldiers from its codes force an elite unit of the republican guard to both syria and iraq. you know i think iran has influence and commitment in iraq was present well before mozilla in the summer of twenty fourteen really go all the way back to the us intervention in two thousand and three. telamon the shia majority government role that arena and militias played. ever since then the arraigning presence was both opportunistic to expand its power expand its influence in the region but also defensive because it first of all didn t want to return to power of this party in sunni arab domination secondly it didn t want the united states to use iraq as
iraq war. in september one thousand eight hundred saddam hussein decided to invade iran just months after the revolution the fledgling islamic republic was threatened with destruction. in the heart that he thought if you are in the iranian collective memory syria was the only country to supporters during the war against iraq. and we ve never forgotten that that hard to the war which was. that sense of strategic solitude the iranians experience during the iran iraq war. deep impact on their thinking and their predecessors and and it still to this day influence how they see the world. the fact that saddam used chemical weapons against iran were then entire
a red line for iran and that iran was willing to really take risks and put the resources in to back assad assad. i think the same is true for russia. neither iran nor russia wanted to accept. the notion of regime change that people in the middle east could ride out rise up and get rid of their leader we know russia has a real. reaction to that and iran. in september two thousand and fifteen russia began large scale intervention on the iranian side to defend. but meanwhile another protectionist appeared in the middle eastern theater. on june the twelfth two thousand and fourteen islamic state forces took control of iraq s second city mosul a few days later in syria fell into jihad is towns and became the capital of the self-styled islamic caliphate. for ten romm
presence felt in syria and iraq the revolutionary guard units being these tensional tool in the strategy and thanks to their victory on the ground they have undoubtedly never had so much influence in the rainy and political game. as the i ask connotate look close to collapse the islamic republic was in the press. of establishing an unbroken territorial cora daughter the mediterranean by a baghdad damascus and beirut. for certain western countries asked for saudi arabia iran had become the new leader of the great regional game in play it was now a question of doing as much as possible to reduce its influence.