Iran’s Revolutionary Guard to set up cellular service in Syria

The Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps is to establish and operate a new cellular network in areas of Syria under the control of President Bashar Assad. The move comes under a series of agreements signed Tuesday by Syrian Prime Minister Emad Khamis and Iranian Vice President Eshaq Jahangiri for Syria's economic rehabilitation after six years of civil war. The IRGC's technological units will set up and operate the network. DEBKAfile's intelligence and tech sources report that the network will help Iranian intelligence monitor and intercept any call, text message, web surfing or e-mail by the network's customers. Our intelligence sources add that the placement of poles for cellular antennas throughout the country will provide Iranian intelligence with more opportunities to monitor events inside and outside Syria, including on the country's borders with Israel, Jordan, Lebanon, Turkey and Iraq.