ERBIL, Kurdistan Region—A senior leader of the Iranian army has mocked Gulf Arab states for their disappointment in Syria and threatened that after the victory in Aleppo it would be the turn of places such as Bahrain, Yemen and Iraq’s Mosul.
“The people of Bahrain will get their wish, the people of Yemen will be happy and the residents of Mosul will taste victory,” deputy commander of the Iranian army Hossein Salami told his country’s IRNA news agency. “All of this is God’s promise.”
Salami described the retaking of Aleppo by Syrian government forces as the promised victory from the Koran.
He said that the victory in Aleppo would provide a chance to solve the crisis in Yemen and Bahrain, adding that Iran would stand by both countries and their people’s fight against their foes.
The Iranian army commander said that his country provided support for the Houthi rebels in Yemen and that missiles provided to them were capable of hitting enemy targets anywhere.
Syrian government forces have made big advances into Aleppo and are now in control of 98 percent of the city, officials in Damascus said.
In a separate interview with Fars news agency, Salami said that fighters from Iran, Pakistan, Afghanistan and Lebanon played a crucial role in the battle for Aleppo.
Iranian military advisers and volunteer fighters have helped government and paramilitary groups in both Iraq and Syria in the last few years.
As a sign of the close link between Iran and Iraqi forces, Ahmad al-Asadi, the spokesperson for Iraq’s Shiite group of Hashd al-Shaabi was in Tehran on Wednesday where he said in a press conference inside the Tasnim news agency office that Mosul was about to be fully liberated and that his forces were ready to go into Syria if called upon.
