Controversy over salaries for Iranian proxies in Syria

The admission on a television program by the head of the Mostazafan Foundation that he paid salaries to tens of thousands of proxies of the Islamic Republic in Syria has raised a sensitive issue. The Sharq newspaper criticized the head of the Mostazafan Foundation for this action.

Parviz Fattah, head of the Mostazafan Foundation, said in a program on state-run Islamic Republic Television that when he was the CEO of the Revolutionary Guards Cooperative Foundation, Qassem Soleimani approached him to pay the salaries of the Fatemiyoun in Syria and asked for help.

Fattah said: "I was at the Revolutionary Guards Cooperative Foundation, Hajj Qasem came to me and told me that I don't have the rights to pay the Fatemiyoun, help in Syria! That is, things are getting to the point where Hajj Qasem Soleimani cannot pay the rights of his regiment. He would say that these are our Afghan brothers and would extend a helping hand to people like us in need."

The remarks of the head of the Mostazafan Foundation on the Iranian Broadcasting Corporation (IRCC) were widely echoed on social media. Government-affiliated media outlets have remained silent about it, but the non-governmental newspaper "Sharq" criticized Parviz Fattaj for addressing such an issue in public and saying something he shouldn't have said!

Sharq newspaper wrote in its Saturday, September 6th issue: "The head of the Mostazafan Foundation does not have the intelligence required to appear on a television program. He gets angry quickly and shows reactions similar to his former head, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, or says things he should not say."

Shargh continued: "Fatah's strange statements, especially in such circumstances, have been met with silence from his domestic fundamentalist supporters, and even newspapers like Kayhan have not spoken about the issue and have remained silent." This is while, according to Shargh, "the fundamentalist media attacked Hassan Rouhani when he spoke about the country's empty treasury and accused the president of giving to the enemy."

Sharq wrote about the silence of government-affiliated media on this matter: "Kayhan and the media outlets aligned with it have preferred to adopt a policy of silence in the face of the words of the head of the Foundation for the Oppressed, and if there was a need for a warning, it seems they did not see the point in trumpeting it, contrary to the warning to the presidency!"

Fatemiyoun Division

The Fatemiyoun Division is a paramilitary force affiliated with the Quds Force and is made up of Afghan Shiites. Its members are mostly Afghan Shiites living in Iran. The majority of these forces have been recruited by the Quds Force in order to receive residency, identity cards, and monthly salaries.

Most of the Iranian forces killed in the Syrian civil war are from the Fatemiyoun Division. They are buried in Iran, and their family members are covered and supported by the Martyrs' Foundation. Iranian media calls the Islamic Republic's proxy forces in Syria, which are fighting to preserve Bashar al-Assad's regime, "defenders of the shrine."

Source: DW