Special to WorldTribune.com

ABU DHABI — Iran has pressed its main proxy for full combat troop
deployment in Syria, a newspaper said.

Kuwait’s Al Rai Al Aam reported that Iranian supreme leader Ali Khamenei
convened an urgent meeting with Hizbullah secretary-general Hassan Nasrallah
in Teheran.

Al Rai said Khamenei pressed Nasrallah in April to be prepared to send all of Hizbullah’s assets and troops to help the regime of Syrian President Bashar Assad.

“Whatever it takes,” Khamenei was quoted as telling Nasrallah.

Arab diplomatic sources confirmed the meeting between Khamenei and the visiting Nasrallah in April. The sources said Nasrallah was summoned to an emergency meeting with the Iranian leadership amid fears that Hizbullah fighters were avoiding combat against Sunni rebels in Syria.

“We saw increasing reluctance by Hizbullah fighters and some commanders to fight in Syria beyond the Lebanese border area,” a diplomat said.

On May 16, Al Rai said Nasrallah responded immediately to the Iranian
order. The newspaper said Hizbullah sent large number of fighters to Syria, many of whom were used in the Assad offensive in the central city of Homs.

“The importance of the Hizbullah penetration was not in entering Homs,
which is still under [rebel] Free Syrian Army control,” Al Rai said.
“Instead, it was in the Hizbullah siege that prevented the arrival of
[rebel] weapons and ammunition to Homs and nearby villages.”

The diplomatic sources said Hizbullah has deployed hundreds of fighters,
many of them specialists in urban warfare, deep into Syria. They cited
Hizbullah guidance as well as operations around the cities of Aleppo and
Dera. Dera is located near the Syrian border with Jordan.

Nasrallah’s ousted predecessor, Subhi Tufeili, said Hizbullah has lost
some 140 fighters in Syria. Tufeili, who opposes Iranian domination, said
commanders have sought to avoid duty in Syria.

  Aleppo, Bashar Assad, Hassa Nasrallah, Homs, Khamenei pressed Hizbullah in emergency meeting to do ‘whatever it takes’ in Syria