Iran is increasing its presence in
Syria, Defense Secretary Leon E. Panetta said today, through apparent
efforts to bolster the Bashar Assad regime by training a militia and
other tactics.
“There’s now indications that they’re trying to develop or trying to
train a militia within Syria to be able to fight on behalf of the
regime,” Panetta said at a Pentagon news briefing. “So we are seeing a
growing presence by Iran and that is of deep concern to us.”
The secretary said he hopes Iran thinks again about how much it wants to
get involved in Syria. “The Syrian people ought to determine their
future, not Iran,” he said.
Iran’s interference is adding to the killing in Syria, Panetta said, and
“tries to bolster a regime that we think, ultimately, is going to come
down.”
The secretary noted the increasing number of defections and problems
within the Syrian military as further signs of collapse. Assad’s former
prime minister, Riyad Farid Hijab, fled the country last week and a
number of key generals have defected in recent months, as well.
Lighting
flashes as the aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln transits in the
Straight of Malacca, Oct. 8, 2010. U.S. Navy photo by Petty Officer 3rd
Class Colby K. Neal
Speaking alongside Panetta at the briefing, Army Gen. Martin E. Dempsey,
chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said the 18-month uprising is
taking an obvious toll on the Syrian army.
“I actually think that’s why Iran is stepping in to form this militia,
to take some of the pressure off of the Syrian military,” Dempsey said.
The
fighting, Dempsey said, has left pro-Assad forces with resupply and
morale problems. “Any army would be taxed with that kind of pace,” he
said.
Panetta said U.S. efforts to end Assad’s rule are being worked primarily
through diplomatic channels, with a focus on ensuring the security of
Syria’s chemical and biological weapons as well as providing
humanitarian aid to refugees and non-lethal aid to the opposition.
The Defense Department plans for “a number of contingencies,” Panetta
said, but any notion of establishing a no-fly zone over Syria, as some
rebels have called for, is “not a front-burner issue for us.”
Still, he said, “we are prepared to be able to respond to whatever the
president of the United States asks us to do.”
