The Obama administration is facing mounting criticism that it is deliberately downplaying Iran’s role in ongoing atrocities in Syria in order to avoid endangering the nuclear deal, a characterization the administration has rejected but that experts and journalists continue to wage.
An exchange between State Department spokesperson John Kirby and reporters at Wednesday’s regular press briefing became heated after Associated Press reporter Bradley Klapper suggested that the administration has spent months minimizing Iran’s role in Syria. Kirby rejected that characterization.
“It did seem you did downplay in the last few weeks and months Iran’s influence on this war, but today you’re saying Iran-based militias were responsible for breaking or preventing this ceasefire from ever taking hold,” Klapper said. “Why have you been so quiet on the role of Iran?”
“We said that they have an advisory role on the ground,” Kirby said. “I haven’t downplayed anything on that.”
The Associated Press reported in October that the Obama administration was broadly resisting Syria-related sanctions legislation because those sanctions might lead to a confrontation with Iran. Kirby was grilled on the issue Wednesday.
“How many sanctions have you put on Iran over Syria in the last two years?” Klapper asked. “Zero. … Why have you put no sanctions on Iran for the last two years? … This is about their support for the Assad regime’s military activity.”
“Look, Brad. Brad. Brad. Calm down,” Kirby responded. “Okay? You don’t need to get so upset.”
The exchange added to deepening criticism that the administration has been minimizing Iran’s activities in Syria, after Kirbydescribed Iran’s role in propping up the Assad regime as “more of an advisory mission” last Friday.
Iran maintains a wide range of personnel on the ground in Syria, including fighters recruited from across the Middle East and Asia. THE WEEKLY STANDARD reported on outrage from lawmakers and experts over Kirby’s remarks.
“[General Qasem] Soleimani is merely an advisor to Assad just like Mussolini was merely an advisor to Hitler,” Florida senator Marco Rubio told TWS.
Experts compared the State Department’s remarks to those of Iranian officials, who have also described the country’s personnel in Syria as “military advisers,” and said that the administration has long been trivializing Iranian activities in Syria.
“It’s a parroting of Iranian official propaganda,” Tony Badran, a research fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, told TWS. “[Obama officials] don’t want to talk about Iran. They want to talk about Russia, but they don’t want to talk about Iran.”
