Iran Reportedly Extends Credit Line to Syria

Syrian president Bashar al-Assad has praised Iranian support as a “key pillar,” following an announcement by Syria’s official news agency that Iran is extending a credit line to Syria, AP reports.

The new credit was announced on Tuesday during a visit to Syria’s capital Damascus by Ali Akbar Velayati, a top aide to Iranian supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and a former foreign minister.

Velayati is the third Iranian official to visit Damascus in less than a week.

Velayati’s visit comes after a trip by the head of a Syrian–Iranian economic commission, during which the two countries signed several agreements relating to the oil, electricity and industrial sectors, Syrian state television reported.

Iran, a key ally of the Syrian government, is believed to have supplied it with financial and military support, including a $1 billion credit line in June 2013.

The trips come after a string of regime defeats by a rebel coalition known as the “Army of Conquest,” who on Monday seized Mastouma, the regime’s largest remaining military base in Idlib.

The Mastouma base was one of the last few army strongholds in a province now controlled by the insurgent coalition, which includes al-Qaida’s Syrian affiliate Jabhat al-Nusra and the Ahrar al-Sham movement.

The insurgents have been trying to push government forces out of its few remaining bases in Idlib province, putting them closer to the neighboring provinces of Latakia and Hama, strongholds of President Assad.

Meanwhile, the Russian embassy in Damascus was reportedly shelled on Tuesday, in what the U.N. condemned as a terrorist attack.

A U.N. Security Council statement said the Russian embassy sustained “serious material damage” but did not specify who was responsible for the attack.

According to Russian diplomats, the embassy has been targeted before.

Russia is a strong ally of the Syrian government.

Mother of U.S. Reporter Missing in Syria Appeals for Information About Her Son

The mother of an American journalist missing in Syria for more than 1,000 days pleaded on Tuesday for information about her son, saying she believes that he is still alive, Reuters reports.

Austin Tice went missing in 2012 during a reporting trip near Damascus. The U.S. State Department said in March that Washington had been in periodic direct contact with the Syrian government regarding his case.

“We ask both governments to work together and to work effectively to locate Austin and to secure his safe release,” Debra Tice told Reuters in Beirut on Tuesday during a trip marking more than 1,000 days since his disappearance.

Calling for more direct communication between the two countries, she said, “we have been urging our government to directly engage with the Syrian government to find our son and secure his release.”

Tice said that her family had received information from unspecified sources that her son was alive.

“We have every reason to believe Austin is alive. As recently as a few weeks ago and a number of times over the past 33 months, credible sources have told us Austin is alive,” she said.

According to the family, it is not believed that Austin is being held by the Islamic State group, which beheaded aid worker Peter Kassig and journalists Steven Sotloff and James Foley. American aid worker Kayla Mueller is also said to have died while held in captivity by ISIS.

“We know Austin is not being held by any part of the opposition. Still, after all these 1,009 days, we do not know where he is nor who is holding him,” Tice said.

Recommended Reads

• The Guardian: Australian Man Who Fled Syria Says He Never Joined ‘Vicious and Cruel’ ISIS
• The New York Times: Insurgents Continue Advance in Syria, Keeping Pressure on Government Forces
• Associated Press: U.N. Condemns ‘Terrorist’ Attack on Russian Embassy in Syria
• Agence France-Presse: Despite U.S. Strikes, IS Advances in Syria, Iraq