Iran Update, December 21, 2024
Iranian Foreign Affairs Ministry spokesperson Esmaeil Baghaei announced the killing of an Iranian embassy staff member, Davoud Bitaraf, in Damascus.[30] Unidentified individuals reportedly opened fire on Bitaraf’s vehicle in Damascus on December 15. Baghaei urged the interim government to find and prosecute the perpetrators.[31] Bitaraf reportedly served as a religious scholar at the Damascus seminary and Imam of the Sayyidah Ruqayya Shrine there for over two decades.[32]
https://www.understandingwar.org/backgrounder/iran-update-december-21-2024
Iran Update, December 22, 2024
Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei discussed Syrians revolting against unspecified oppressors during a speech on December 22.[28] Khamenei said that “Syrian youth . . . must stand up to the planners and executors of insecurity [in Syria] with strong will and overcome them.” It is unclear exactly whom Khamenei was referencing when he said “planners and executors.” Such comments reflect the second time that Khamenei has discussed young Syrians organizing and arming themselves since the fall of Assad. Khamenei said on December 11 that “undoubtedly the occupied area[s] of Syria will be liberated by the zealous Syrian youth.”[29] Khamenei in the same breath compared Syria today to Iraq in the 2003-2011 period and said that Syrian youth would free Syria in the same way that Iranian-backed Iraqi militias “freed” Iraq from the United States. CTP-ISW previously assessed that this comparison suggests that Iran may pursue efforts to support similar militias in Syria to combat opposition forces and US-Israeli “interference” while undermining any new government in Syria, although CTP-ISW has not observed any material developments to indicate that Iran is currently pursuing these efforts.[30]
https://www.understandingwar.org/backgrounder/iran-update-december-22-2024