BICOM

Iranian authorities have said that a senior commander of its Revolutionary Guards was killed while travelling from Syria to Lebanon. While the circumstances of the death remain unclear, the admission would appear to confirm Iran’s involvement in Syria’s bloody civil war.

In an announcement yesterday on Iran’s semi-official Mehr news agency, Revolutionary Guards’ spokesman, Ramezan Sharif said that “General Hassan Shateri was martyred by the agents and supporters of the Zionist regime on his way to Beirut from Damascus,” in a possible reference to Syrian opposition forces seeking the overthrow of President Assad, a close ally of Iran. The British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights told AFP that Shateri was killed when opposition forces ambushed his vehicle while he returned to Lebanon from Syria. Although the details of the killing remain vague, Iran’s public admission of Shateri’s death in Syria appears to verify Western claims that Iran is directly involved in Syria’s civil war, aiding the Assad regime.

Shateri’s seniority was reflected by the attendance at his funeral yesterday, which according to the Guardian included Iran’s foreign minister, Ali Akbar Salehi, the commander of the Revolutionary Guards, Mohammad Ali Jafari and the head of its’ Quds force. The Jerusalem Post quotes an official from Iran’s embassy in Lebanon, who at the funeral described Shateri as “no less important” than Hezbollah’s assassinated field commander Imad Mugniyah, who spearheaded high-profile terror attacks over many years.

Indeed, Shateri appears to have been central to Iran’s support of Hezbollah. Officially, Mehr described Shateri as having overseen Iran’s “reconstruction of damaged areas” in southern Lebanon following the 2006 Second Lebanon War. However, Shateri is suspected of having facilitated Hezbollah’s rearmament of tens of thousands of rockets and other weaponry.