Iran steps in to shore up Assad

Iran has thrown Syria an economic lifeline by making ambitious plans for road, rail, air and even electricity links between the two countries, according to official records of high-level talks in Damascus.

Two documents purporting to be notes of meetings between President Bashar al-Assad's ministers and their Iranian counterparts have been obtained from the email accounts of Syrian officials.

They provide further evidence of the effort Iran's regime is making to shore up Mr Assad, Tehran's only reliable ally in the Middle East. All the plans require the co-operation of Iraq, which would have to allow its territory to be used as a corridor between Syria and Iran.

One document purports to record a meeting held in Damascus on December 8 last year between 10 Iranian officials and five senior members of Mr Assad's regime.

Focused

During this meeting the officials "focused on the best way to push forward co-operation".

They agreed to "speed up" a plan to improve "road transport through Iraq and the potential opening of aviation transport through Iraq's airspace following the American troop withdrawal". The departure of US forces from Iraq was completed on December 18.

The officials also aimed to join Syria and Iran with a railway line running across Iraq.

The gathering heard that "an invitation was made to the Iraqi transport minister to attend the meeting scheduled on the coming Tuesday in Damascus.

The proposed meeting would have happened on December 13, 2011, but Hadi al-Amiri, the Iraqi transport minister, could not have attended because he was on an official US visit.

However, the Iranian official media reported that Mr Amiri travelled to Tehran on January 26 this year and signed a "memorandum of understanding" with his Iranian counterpart, Ali Nikzad.

Mr Amiri, a Shia, lived in exile in Iran during Saddam Hussein's rule.

He became a commander of the Badr Brigade, a unit of Iraqi exiles founded by Iran's regime to launch attacks inside Iraq.

Mr Amiri returned to Iraq after Saddam's fall in 2003.

"It would be hard to find another Iraqi politician with deeper and more sustained links with Tehran," said Toby Dodge, an Iraq specialist at the London School of Economics.

Syria's economy has come under immense pressure from sanctions. Any help from Iran could be a crucial means of avoiding economic collapse. But the long term plans could come too late to save Mr Assad. (© Daily Telegraph, London