Reflections on the War in Syria

Interview with the leader of the 313 Force

Continuing my interviews with veterans of the Syrian war who fought on the side of the Assad regime and worked with the Iranians/Hezbollah, I present the following recent interview I conducted with the person who led the ‘313 Force’, a formation that worked with Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps but was dissolved some time before the final collapse of the regime. In this interview, we discuss his own experiences during the war, the role of the Iranians and Hezbollah and how they interacted with the Assad regime, and the new government and the issue of confronting Israel.

Parenthetical insertions in square brackets are my own.

Q: When the demonstrations broke out what did you think of them? Did you feel that the demands were legitimate? What did you think of the regime’s response to the demonstrations?

A: The demonstrations came out with justified demands. But there were in my view foreign agendas that began to invest in the situation. On the other side, there were some figures of the regime who think in a barbaric and arrogant way, an example of them being Atef Najib.* I will give you an example regarding him.