IRGC Rejects Reports on Iran’s Military Presence in Syria

“As has been mentioned several times, Iran does not have any active battalion in Syria, but has some staff there for advisory purposes to convey its defensive experiences to that country’s (Syria’s) defenders,” General Ramezan Sharif said on Monday.

His comments come in response to recent rumors that are “hundreds” of Iranian military battalions in Syria fighting alongside the government forces.

“I vehemently deny the presence of Iranian battalions in Syria,” Sharif reiterated.

Also on October 28, IRGC Navy Commander Rear Admiral Ali Fadavi stressed that the IRGC has no military activity in Syria, and added that the force has just an advisory role in the Arab country.

“The IRGC has the role of a guide, counselor and adviser in this region (Syria),” Fadavi said in a conference in Iran’s northern city of Rasht at the time.

And in September 2012, IRGC Commander Major General Mohammad Ali Jafari had announced that members of his elite special operations unit, the Quds Force, “are present in Lebanon and Syria but only to provide counsel.”

"A number of Quds Force members are present in Lebanon and Syria... we provide (these countries) with counsel and advice, and transfer experience to them," he said at the time.

"But it does not mean that we have a military presence there," the commander noted.