Ayatollah Attacking Syria Would Mean War With Iran - PolicyMic

An attack on Syria would be an "attack on Iran." 

Iran's leadership on Saturday, issuing their strongest warning to date, said that any attack on Syria would be deemed an attack on their own country, a sign that it will do all it can to protect embattled Syrian President Bashar Assad, who has lead Syria through two years now of brutal civil war.

Ali Akbar Velayati, an aide to Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, made his comments as Syrian troops conducted offensive air raids against rebels and discovered a trio of tunnels they were being used to smuggle weapons in their fight to topple Assad.

Iran is Syria's strongest ally in the Middle East, and has provided Assad's government with military and political backing for years.

According to the Associated Press, the top commander of Iran's powerful Revolutionary Guard, Gen. Mohammad Ali Jafari, said in September the elite unit had high-level advisers in Syria. Iran also is believed to be sending weapons and money to Syria as it endures its worst crisis in decades, the AP reports.

Iran's comments come as at least 140 people were killed in Syria on Friday as the Syrian army attacked fighters with rocket and artillery fire in rebel-held areas.

According to the United Nations, refugees streaming into neighboring Jordan have already doubled that nation's population, with approximately 6,000 people arriving in Zaatari within the past two days.

Syria remains very much a quagmire few countries want to get caught in.

At the Davos World Economic Forum this week, Arab officials, including Jordan's King Abdullah II, called on global leaders to take urgent action over Syria's civil war and provide "desperately needed" help to refugees.

The West, in return, has called on Arab countries help manage Syria and remove Assad from power.

Iran's decision to support Syria likely stem from their interest to assert continued regional authority, especially in the midst of crushing Western sanctions. Supporting Syria doesn't necessarily help them economically or strategically, but it does enable them to throw up a middle finger against the West.

As PolicyMic Iran expert Joe Sarkisian rightly analyzed earlier this month, Iran is hurting from some of the most brutal sanctions it has ever endured – complete with a brand new, highly destructive round enacted over the last few months – sending prices through the roof and decimating the worth of the Iranian Rial against the dollar. Iran is being dealt a serious blow with the looming finale of Assad's Syria, arguably Iran's only ally and gateway to meddling in the Israel/Palestine quagmire.

Iran needs to keep this conflict intractable at all costs if it is to maintain its thin veil of legitimacy to Sunni Arabs who see Iran as a viable opponent to Israel, lest Iran become even less legitimate in an increasingly hostile neighborhood.