Turkey’s Patriot missiles strategic mistake: IRGC cmdr.

A senior commander of Iran’s Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) says Turkey’s deployment of Patriot missiles is a strategic mistake that could seriously harm the NATO member state.

“Ankara should know that if deployment of Patriot missiles is aimed at paving the way for military intervention in Syria, it would suffer much heavier costs than the past and would be severely harmed,” Brigadier General Yadollah Javani, senior advisor to the Leader of the Islamic Ummah and Oppressed People Imam Seyyed Ali Khamenei in IRGC said on Tuesday.

Earlier this month, Ankara requested its NATO partners to deploy the Patriot missile systems to protect its border with Syria.

Referring to Ankara’s contribution to the Western-backed militants in Syria, Javani described the move as “another strategic mistake” by Turkey.

“Right after the outbreak of crisis in Syria, Turkey was deceived by the Western [countries] and Zionists and fanned the flames of the crisis in Syria by helping saboteur groups,” he noted.

The missiles, the commander noted, will not help maintain security in Turkey, but will rather deteriorate Ankara’s popularity among Syrian people who blame Turkey for betraying its southern neighbor instead of trying to resolve the crisis.

Ankara’s plan to deploy the Patriot missiles along the Syrian border has drawn criticism from Damascus, which censured the move as another act of provocation by the government of Prime Minister Erdogan.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov has also warned that the move could tempt Ankara to use the weapons and spark a “very serious armed conflict” involving NATO.

Since March 2011, Syria has experienced a deadly unrest which has claimed the lives of many people, including large numbers of army and security personnel.

The Syrian government says that the chaos is being orchestrated from outside the country, and there are reports that a very large number of the militants fighting the government forces are foreign nationals.

Damascus blames Turkey along with Saudi Arabia, Qatar and a number of Western countries for fanning the flames of violence in the country.