Confessions of a Commander on Betrayal, Corruption, and Defeat
Confessions of a Commander on Betrayal, Corruption, and Defeat
A senior commander of the Revolutionary Guards, in a speech recently released and causing controversy, contrary to the official viewpoint of the Islamic Republic, acknowledged that Iran suffered a very bad defeat in Syria. Behrouz Ebtisam, who for years was a high-ranking commander of Iran’s advisory forces in Syria and whose official position is the head of the Cyber Command of the Armed Forces Headquarters, gave a speech last week in a mosque in Tehran among military forces and supporters of the Islamic Republic and then answered questions from the audience.
According to Iranian media reports, this Revolutionary Guards commander said about losing Syria for Iran in the resistance axis: First, let me say that I do not consider it an honor that we lost Syria, we were defeated, we took a hit, and it was very hard for us. An approximately one-hour audio file of Behrouz Ebtisam’s statements has been circulating in the Persian-speaking virtual space for several days and has been reflected in some domestic media as well.
According to this commander’s statements, he was among the contemporaries of Qasem Soleimani, the former commander of the Quds Force of the Revolutionary Guards, who was in Syria for about two decades until the last night before the fall of the Assad government. According to the New York Times, given Behrouz Ebtisam’s practical oversight of the war in Syria and his responsibility for coordinating with the Assad government’s officials and the Russian command in Syria, his role in commanding Iran’s militia network and its allies in the region was more important than the duty of Esmail Qa’ani, the commander of the Quds Force.
Behrouz Ebtisam’s statements contrast with the words of Ali Khamenei and also the statements of the President, Foreign Minister, and several other officials of the Islamic Republic of Iran, who have downplayed the loss of Syria in the resistance axis. On January 9, in his fifth speech after the fall of the Assad government in Syria, Ali Khamenei for the fifth time considered the military blows inflicted on Iran’s allied groups in the region, the killing of the political and military cadres of Hamas and Hezbollah, the destruction of a large part of the military power of these two militia groups, and the fall of the Assad government in Syria as insignificant.
He claimed that the resistance is moving forward and the Islamic Republic is approaching the peak, and despite all the pressures and statements about defeat in the region, his government will not stop supporting resistance against Israel anywhere, including in Gaza and the West Bank. The extremist group Hamas is considered a terrorist organization by the United States and the European Union, and Hezbollah is a militia group and at the same time a political party that the United States considers a terrorist organization, but the European Union has blacklisted its military wing.
Accusation against Russia regarding cooperation with Israel in killing senior Revolutionary Guards commanders
Behrouz Ebtisam described Russia as an accomplice of Israel in implementing this country’s plans in the targeted killing of commanders of the Islamic Republic of Iran in Syria. He said that in Israel’s operations to kill Sadegh Omid Zadeh, the then deputy of the Quds Force’s intelligence in Syria, Razi Mousavi, the then commander of the Quds Force in Syria, Mohammad Reza Zahedi, who took over the leadership of the Quds Force in Lebanon and Syria following Razi Mousavi’s death, and at every critical juncture, the Russians would turn off their radars so that Israel could easily target these Iranian commanders.
Behrouz Ebtisam also added that Bashar al-Assad, despite comprehensive military plans that Iranian forces in Syria provided him for practical participation in striking Israel, refrained from this action and never intended to attack Israel. According to him, after October 7 last year, when the extremist group Hamas attacked Israel and caused the start of the Gaza war, Bashar al-Assad repeatedly rejected Iran’s requests to open a front against Israel from Syrian soil.
In expressing dissatisfaction with Russia, he added that the country rejected Iran’s request in the last days of Assad’s government to take a thousand Kalashnikov weapons, which it deemed necessary to maintain one of the important lines in Syria, and even did not allow the landing of the Iranian arms-carrying plane at the Hmeimim base. These statements about Russia come while Ali Khamenei and his government considered Moscow their strategic partner, especially in Syria. Russia has not reacted to this commander’s statements.
The current scene in Iran does not have the capacity to carry out an attack on Israel
Behrouz Ebtisam also admitted that the Islamic Republic of Iran does not have the real ability to strike Israel, otherwise the promise of Sadeq 3 would have been fulfilled. He added, I was not here in Iran and did not participate in decision-making as to why it was not done and who decided not to do it. We took a hit; it would have been better if it had been done and our situation in the region would have been much better. Well, now that it hasn’t been done, the scene no longer has the capacity for the promise of Operation Sadeq 3. Another attendee also asked the same question, saying, ‘Mr. Khamenei said a few years ago that if Israel makes a mistake, we will level Tel Aviv and Haifa to the ground, so why didn’t you do anything?’ My answer is, to be honest, I don’t know.
The promise of Sadeq 3 is a pledge made by senior military commanders and statesmen of the Islamic Republic of Iran to retaliate against Israel’s air operations executed on the fifth of Aban this year against dozens of Iranian military targets. Israel, in response to two missile and drone attacks by Iran in late Farvardin and Mehr of this year, carried out operations on the fifth of Aban in Iran and threatened that any subsequent Iranian attack would be met with a harsher response, especially since this time Iran has lost its air defense capability due to Israel’s hits on Iran’s S-300 defense systems.
Behrouz Ebtisam also said that the United States can attack Iran’s positions and the Popular Mobilization Forces in Iraq. In statements that had not been made public until now, he added that Iranian missiles are not capable of penetrating American fortified sites and their concrete structures. He said if Iran attacks, the United States will respond and attack dozens of Iranian sites.
He stated that war has several characteristics. First, you must have logic in war. Suppose we hit an American base, first of all, American bases are equipped, our regular missiles do not have much effect on those concrete structures and bunkers. Well, suppose we fired a missile, then what happens? America will hit ten of our places, and also attack the Popular Mobilization Forces in Iraq, and secondly, it will fire a missile at Yemen. With this missile firing, where do we want to reach? An attack and missile firing must meet objectives, whether strategic, operational, or tactical. These three now, in these conditions, dragging the region into military combat is not in favor of the resistance. Now, if we want to start a new phase, the enemy will again start its operational targets. As a result, there is no logic for this action. This Revolutionary Guards commander added that the Islamic Republic of Iran has avenged the killing of Hassan Nasrallah, the martyred Secretary-General of Hezbollah.
Syrian army officers killed an Iranian commander
Behrouz Ebtisam provided explanations to his audience about the killing of Kiumars Pourhashemi, another senior commander of the Quds Force of the Revolutionary Guards in Syria, who was killed on December 8 last year, a day after the forces of Hayat Tahrir al-Sham began moving in Aleppo, which have many contradictions with the official reports of the Revolutionary Guards and the Islamic Republic’s institutions regarding the death of this commander.
In its official statement regarding Pourhashemi’s death, the Revolutionary Guards portrayed this event as a result of war and defending the shrine on the day of Hayat Tahrir al-Sham forces’ attempt to take control of Aleppo province. However, Behrouz Ebtisam says that two Syrian military personnel who were present in the joint war room with Iranian commanders shot Pourhashemi with a firearm on that day.
One of the attendees at this commander’s session asked him if it is true that a Syrian officer martyred Commander Kiumars Pourhashemi. Behrouz Ebtisam replied, yes, it is true, not one officer, but two Syrian officers who were actually part of the Syrian security organization entered the meeting that Commander Pourhashemi held on the morning of the enemy’s movement, the movement of Hayat Tahrir al-Sham forces from Idlib. They bypassed the security system and came in, opened the door to the room. Three Russian officers were also present. Three young Syrian officers were also there, and the senior Hezbollah commander from our friends was also present.
He added that Salman, our consul in Aleppo, who is now in Lebanon, was also supposed to be there, but Salman arrived late. Salman told me when he arrived, he saw that two Syrian security officers, the armed assailants, had opened fire on the attendees. The Russians, according to custom and military protocols for participating in meetings in war zones and foreign countries, wore bulletproof vests and were unharmed, but the Hezbollah youth, who was a senior Hezbollah commander and one of our friends, was martyred. Three Syrian officers were also martyred. Hashim Kiumars Pourhashemi was also injured, they took him to the hospital, and at the hospital door, he was martyred. Behrouz Ebtisam named the Syrian officers who shot Kiumars Pourhashemi as those who had allied with Assad’s opposition forces.
Corruption throughout Assad’s regime and army’s disinterest in Iran
Behrouz Ebtisam described Bashar al-Assad’s government as a bunch of corrupt, immoral, and out-of-touch individuals and said that while the Syrian people had no electricity and even conditions for military forces in heat and cold were dire, and they complained about the lack of electricity and heating, couldn’t sleep, and their children were getting sick, the Syrian government was unaware of the people’s situation and had lost connection with society.
He said Assad’s government was also mixed with corruption and bribery at the level of its military forces and was weakening day by day. He named senior Syrian commanders, Bashar al-Assad’s entourage, and relatives, including Maher, Bashar al-Assad’s brother and one of the senior commanders of the Syrian army, as major figures in taking bribes. According to Ebtisam, in a frontline position, 360 out of 400 soldiers who were supposed to be stationed had fled by paying bribes to the commanders. Behrouz Ebtisam stated that the collapse of Syria’s economy was also directly related to Assad’s corrupt and bribery-prone regime, and the Syrian people were in distress due to harsh economic and living conditions.
He said there was no war in Aleppo at all, the advance of Hayat Tahrir al-Sham forces in capturing Aleppo was completed without a fight. The people rose up and removed a corrupt, immoral system. This was the reality of the scene. The Wall Street Journal wrote this week that the Islamic Republic of Iran spent tens of billions of dollars over the years in Syria to ensure Assad’s survival, to create a ring of fire around Israel, and to attack American targets from Syria. The Wall Street Journal report explained how Iran’s large expenditures in Syria, which increased especially during Syria’s 13-year civil war, were wasted in the 11-day effort of Hayat Tahrir al-Sham to reach Damascus, and Bashar al-Assad fled.
Despite the Iranian government’s expenditures and the efforts of the country’s leaders to portray Syria and Russia as their strategic allies, according to Behrouz Ebtisam, both Russia was involved in the collapse of Assad’s government and Assad’s own government, and even Bashar al-Assad’s wife had no interest in Iran. He said Assad’s regime showed interest in Arab countries like the UAE, and on the day that Ebrahim Raisi, the former president of Iran, traveled to Syria, the Syrian government did nothing to welcome him, while in welcoming the UAE’s foreign minister, UAE flags were raised from Damascus airport to the presidential palace.
Mr. Ebtisam said that Iranian forces were forced to make efforts themselves to welcome Raisi and lined up people from the families of supporters and their forces along his route. Iranian state television, in covering Raisi’s arrival ceremony in Syria, claimed a warm welcome from thousands of Syrians and the IRIB reporter called it a sign of Syrian gratitude and appreciation for Iran.
The leader of the Islamic Republic of Iran, who is also the commander-in-chief, revealed that his government insisted on the continuation of Assad’s government until the last days. Ali Khamenei said more forces and equipment were ready in Iran to be dispatched and sent to Syria to prevent the advance of Hayat Tahrir al-Sham forces and to ensure Assad’s survival, but the United States and Israel blocked both land and air routes and did not allow it.