Periodical Studies

On the night of November 8th, a convoy of fuel trucks was struck with unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) near the Iraq-Syria border crossing. The pro-regime Syrian newspaper al-Watan reported, based on sources in Tehran, about a decision of the Iranian government to increase the export of oil to Syria to three million barrels per month. The secretary general of the World Forum for Proximity of Islamic Schools of Thought visited Syria and met with the Syrian minister of religious endowments and Syrian clerics and discussed ways to further religious cooperation between the two countries. In mid-November, the commander of the Qods Force of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) arrived for a visit to Baghdad, where he met with senior Iraqi government officials and leaders of pro-Iranian Shia factions. The chief of staff of the Iranian Armed Forces spoke on the phone with Iraq’s incoming minister of defense and expressed willingness to expand Iranian military and security assistance to Iraq. In early November, the Iranian ambassador to Damascus met with representatives of Palestinian factions in Syria. Read more...