Coat of arms of the Syrian Arab Armed Forces
The Syrian Arab Army (SAA) denied on April 20 all the reports, which claimed that clashes between Russian and Iranian forces are taking place in the governorates of Aleppo and Deir Ezzor.
“The General Command of the army and armed forces categorically refutes those reports circulated on the websites and newspapers and it asserts that the news are baseless and untrue,” a military source told the Syrian Arab News Agency (SANA).
The source also called on all media outlets to seek accuracy, be responsible for broadcasting news and not to adopt any field military news unless it is issued by a military source.
Earlier this year, reports of clashes between Russia and Iranian forces emerged on Facebook pages and Twitter accounts of Syrian opposition supporters. These claims, which were not supported by any evidence what so ever, were quickly adopted by the opposition media. Later, they found their way to some Western news outlets.
These baseless claims were even backed by some Kurdish news outlets. A day earlier, the Hawar News Agency (ANHA), which is linked to the US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), claimed that “Russian-Iranian clashes have renewed in the vicinity of Aleppo’s airport.” As usual, no evidence was presented.
These claims appear to be a part of a well-coordinated military psychological operation that’s aimed to undermine the Syrian-Iranian-Russian alliance. These attempts, which have been nothing but a complete failure so far, reflect that Syria’s enemies understand that they lost the open phase of the conflict.
