Thread by @criticalthreats

#Raisi is the first #Iranian president to visit #Syria in over a decade. What’s changed and what are the implications for #Iran’s domestic and regional goals? Read the latest from CTP and @TheStudyofWar: (1/8)

criticalthreats.org/analysis/iran-…

#Raisi’s visit signals that #Iran is aiming to leverage political and economic developments in #Syria to improve its domestic economy and advance its regional objectives. (2/8)

#Iran faces a significant economic challenge at home. The #rial recently reached 556,500 rials to one US dollar, marking a 10% reduction in value within the past month. (3/8)

The #IslamicRepublic may use the economic and political initiatives that #Raisi signed with #Assad to alleviate Iran’s economic challenges. (4/8)

#Iran may also use these initiatives to pay for and increase the Axis of Resistance's influence in the region and further entrench itself in #Syria. (5/8)

Separately, Iran may respond to renewed #Israeli airstrikes on Iranian and Iranian-backed forces in Syria by causing Iranian-backed militias to attack US forces. (6/8)

The three maps below illustrate a shift during the month of April in the areas of Syria in which Israeli airstrikes and artillery barrages have targeted Iranian and Iranian-backed militants. (7/8)

Lebanese Hezbollah-aligned social media accounts accused the US of tacit involvement in one of these airstrikes--a tactic that Iran and its Axis of Resistance have previously employed to justify retaliatory attacks against US forces in eastern Syria. (8/8)