Iranian press outlets are conveying information to the effect that several Iranians recently released in a prisoner swap between Damascus and Syrian rebels were Revolutionary Guard commanders. Last September, Revolutionary Guard Commander-in Chief Mohammad Ali Jafari confirmed that “a number of members of the Qods force are present in Syria.” Foreign policy analysis that held for years that Damascus could be peeled away from Tehran has been problematized by Iran’s ongoing military activity on behalf of the Bashar al-Assad regime. Iran has long had signals of intelligence operations in Syria, which the U.S. Department of Defense has linked to the Islamic republic’s efforts to help its Lebanese proxy Hezbollah against Israel.