Dubai: Iran, faced with a crisis in recruiting fighters to prop up Syrian President Bashar Al Assad, has embarked on a new propaganda campaign to encourage children to join the war in Syria.
State media has been broadcasting a new promotional clip titled ‘Martyrs who defend the sacred shrine’ in recent days to encourage children to take part in the war.
The video has been produced by the official Bassij Music House, the propaganda arm of the regime’s paramilitary Bassij, a branch of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC).
In parts of this clip, young children are shown singing: “Let’s rise up to save the sacred shrine. I have joined [Imam] Hussain’s army division.”
“This promotional clip first of all manifests the anti-human nature of the regime which seeks to even mobilise the children of its own loyalists as cannon fodder,” Shahin Gobadi of the Foreign Affairs Committee of the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI) said.
Gobadi adds that the video shows the desperation of the Iranian regime after using up all of its strategic resources.
Not only is Iran backing Al Assad’s regime, it is the chief backer of the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah and is also backing Al Houthis in Yemen who have overthrown the legitimate government prompting the Saudi-led Arab coalition to enter the war.
Despite Russia’s and Hezbollah’s military backing of Al Assad in Syria, keeping the regime afloat has been a daunting challenge.
Iran last year started recruiting Pakistani fighters as more and more Syrians flee the country dodging the military draft and seeking a better future.
On Monday, Iran passed a law allowing the government to grant citizenship to the families of foreigners killed while fighting for Iran.
The law could apply to “volunteers” from Afghanistan and Pakistan who are fighting in Syria and Iraq.
