An analysis by Dr. Yossi Manshroff finds that the two countries are fighting each other over the influence and shaping of the Assad regime, and the friction between the two on the ground is only growing.

• Russian soldiers in Syria // Photo: AFP

Syria and Iran have found themselves cooperating devoutly and in a variety of ways in Syria since Russian involvement in the Syrian civil war began in 2017.

Russian Air Force planes provided cover for the forces loyal to Iran in their fight against the rebels across the country and its equipment Russian knowledge aided held the army of the Assad regime, the common ally of the two countries.

But a new article published by the Alma Institute at the University of Haifa and written by Dr. Yossi Manshroff, an Iranian researcher at the Jerusalem Institute for Strategy and Security (JISS), shows that cooperation between Tehran and Moscow on Syria's battlefields is becoming a rival for positions of influence and power in post-civil war Syria.

According to the article, the two countries, which have invested enormous resources and manpower in maintaining Assad's regime, are competing with each other for positions of influence and control on the ground over what is happening in Syria.

Dr. Manshroff writes that one of the main points of contention between Moscow and Tehran is the security coordination between Russia and Israel around its activities against Israel's terrorism in Syria. "Russia's intervention in Syria interferes with two main Iranian goals, one: to make Syria a front base in the war against Israel and the other is "Increasing Tehran's influence on the regime in Damascus," Manshroff writes.

According to the report, the defense alliance that Syria signed with Iran, in which Tehran pledged to provide the Assad regime with advanced anti-aircraft weapons, is defiant not only against Israel and the West but especially against Russia which prevents the Assad regime from using advanced anti-aircraft missiles in Moscow, as part of Russian understandings with Israel .

"Want the money back"

Another place where the growing rivalry between Tehran and Russia is manifested is the Buchmal region in the east of the country, where, according to the article, Iran invests huge sums of money in education and indoctrination for the mostly Sunni indigenous population, in order to make Iran a strategic area loyal to its targets. Russia opposes the process and has sent militias loyal to it, including Russian special forces, in order to stem this trend.

In addition to geopolitical rivalry, the article also notes economic rivalry. According to the report, Iran is deliberately preventing Russian efforts to rehabilitate the destroyed infrastructure in Syria, in the hope of profiting from the country's massive rehabilitation project itself.

Iran has a hard time hiding this intention. The senior Iranian politician, who is affiliated with the Revolutionary Guards, Shatmullah Palhtaifsa, said in a debate in the local parliament that: "We have invested between $ 20 billion and $ 30 billion in Syria and we expect to get them back."