DEBKAfile Special Report
1 March: The visit Iranian defense minister, Admiral Ali Shamkhani, paid to Damascus Saturday, February 28, distanced the Assad regime further than ever from Washington and Europe. He and Syrian defense minister General Mustafa Tlas affixed their signatures to a new military pact. DEBKAfile’s military and intelligence sources reveal its key clause as being an Iranian pledge to invest in additional long-range Scud C missile production lines at Syria’s underground missile facility in Hamah. Tehran will also transfer technology for the manufacture in Syria of advanced Iranian Shihab-3 missiles as well as financing expanded production of long-range artillery and ammunition.
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