Syria’s President Bashar al-Assad addresses the new members of parliament in Damascus, Syria in this handout released by SANA on August 12, 2020. Photo: SANA/Handout via REUTERS

The Syrian regime of dictator Bashar Assad is increasingly concerned by Iranian influence and activities in the war-torn country, and is reportedly taking action to clamp down on them.

Iran has been a staunch supporter of Assad’s regime, which has been fighting an ongoing civil war since 2011. Iranian and Russian support is widely credited for Assad’s survival thus far.

Al Arabiya was told by anonymous sources that the regime’s army has been ordered to crack down on the activities of Iran and its proxies in Syria, especially in the Sahel region and port areas.

The report comes in the wake of a major Israeli air strike on the port of Latakia, one of the regime’s primary lifelines, which reportedly targeted an Iranian arms shipment.

Iran, said Al Arabiya’s sources, is using civilian ships to smuggle weapons through Syrian ports to its proxies in both Syria and Lebanon, where it is the patron of the terror group Hezbollah.

The smuggling, Al Arabiya stated, is under the direct control of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps, a US-designated terror organization.

Assad, the sources said, believes Iran’s activities threaten Syria’s sovereignty.

Another major factor is that Israel has launched hundreds of air strikes against Iranian and Iran-allied targets in Syria, which are impeding Assad’s rule over the territories he controls and any attempt at reconstruction.

Assad fears that Israeli attacks on Syrian ports will cause serious damage to them, which he wishes to prevent.