While Syria is damaged following the earthquake earlier in February, its Iranian allies seized the opportunity to transport countless trucks of "humanitarian aid" and smuggle in them not only medical equipment, food, and civilian aid but weapons and ammunition as well. 

According to an intelligence report conducted by the "Alma" institute for the study of the northern sector of Israel, more than a thousand aid convoys that left Iran arrived in Syria during February, following the earthquake, and they were several times larger than the convoys sent by more moderate Arab countries. This raises the suspicion that this is an organized smuggling effort.

The earthquake that struck southern Turkey and northern Syria about a month ago resulted in the death of thousands of civilians in Syria and the destruction of countless buildings. In the first days after, the Assad regime received aid delegations from Arab and Muslim countries only, although many countries in the world, including Israel, offered to help. Most of the aid delegations left northern Syria after a few days when there was no hope of finding survivors under the rubble. But there are those who came and did not leave, the Iranian Revolutionary Guards.

According to a report in Iranian media, Iran is considering supplying Syria with surface-to-air missiles. "Syria needs to rearm and build its air defense system. It is possible that Tehran will supply it with weapons, which are intended to help defend against Israeli attacks"… https://t.co/2Of3TN3RXN pic.twitter.com/2t2KO3nGG1

— Sue (@SimplySusie3) February 24, 2023

General Ismail Kani, commander of the Quds Force in the Revolutionary Guards, arrived in Aleppo, Syria immediately after the earthquake, to supervise the provision of aid to the residents. Apparently, he was also involved in receiving weapons and ammunition that were hidden inside the aid shipments. 

By February 25, according to the institute's report, there were about a thousand convoys that left Iran or Iranian bases in Iraq and arrived in Syria. For example, on February 24, an Iranian convoy of eighty trucks that left the Iraqi city of Karbala arrived in Latakia in Syria; on the same day, a convoy of 233 trucks arrived from Iran in Aleppo. 

SYRIA/TURKEY: Iran, using earthquake to smuggle convoys, weapons disguised as humanitarian aid! Moral bankruptcy at the heart of rogue regimes such as Syria & Iran that, even in times of disaster, they are willing to exploit the suffering of others.🚨https://t.co/IGCtBLLvTA

— JENNIFER SEYMOUR (@GOLDENMIND777) February 26, 2023

On February 20, a convoy of 150 trucks was organized at the base of the 42nd Brigade of the Iraqi Shia militia al-Hashd al-Shaabi, which operates under the auspices of the Revolutionary Guards, and it also left for Aleppo. It is not clear what the scope of the weapons and ammunition were transported in these convoys.

The suspicion that the convoys are intended for smuggling weapons and ammunition is based, as mentioned, on the fact that the Iranian convoys are abnormal in size. From Jordan and western Saudi Arabia, for example, much smaller convoys left, up to twenty trucks each.

- @WashInstitute https://t.co/DzYHForJPL #Iraq’s Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF) Exploited Syria's Earthquake as opportunity for #Iran to transport weapons to #Syria and #Lebanon inside aid convoys.

— Zuhair Hussainزهير (@zuhair47) February 27, 2023

According to the Alma report, the enormous scope of the convoys in the Iranian corridor suggests that this is an effort to transfer Iranian military equipment and weapons to Syria and from there to Lebanon. In any case, it is clear that they are being used to strengthen the Iranian establishment in Syria in general and in northwestern Syria in particular, even in the unlikely situation that no weapons have been delivered.