Israel’s Ambassador to the United Nations Danny Danon warned the United Nations Security Council on Thursday (Jan. 25) that Iran is attempting to transform Syria into “the largest military base in the world.”
Danon revealed that currently there are 82,000 fighters under Iranian command at present in Syria. The figure includes 3,000 members of the Islamic Republic’s elite Revolutionary Guard Corps, in addition to 9,000 guerrilla fighters from the Lebanon-based Hezbollah terrorist organization, 10,000 members of violent Shi’ite militias recruited from Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan as well as elsewhere in the Middle East. Iran also directly commands 60,000 local Syrian fighters, Danon warned.
“We are releasing this classified information because it is vital for the world to understand that if we turn a blind eye in Syria, the Iranian threat will only grow,” Danon told the Council.
“Why does Iran keep recruiting these extremists to be killed in the battlefields of Syria? Why is Iran building bases to house these fighters for the long run? The answer is clear. To further destabilize Syria and our region. To further threaten Israel, and to further terrorize the entire free world.”
Addressing the consequences of the sanctions relief which accompanied the JCPOA agreement with Iran, Danon pointed out, “Since the signing of the JCPOA in 2015, Iran has only increased its military spending. In 2014, 17 percent of Iran’s government spending went to its military expenditure. This past year, in 2017, this number ballooned to 22 percent. That’s $23 billion dollars spent on missiles, arms and other weapons of war.”
Danon called on the Security Council to fully implement Resolution 2231 and ensure that the international community not “allow Iran to continue funding worldwide terror, pursue its dangerous internal arms buildup, and grow its military presence abroad.”
Israel has warned repeatedly that it will not tolerate a permanent Iranian military presence in Syria.