© Getty ImagesSyrian government forces cross a retractable military bridge on the outskirts of Aleppo.
We knew who they were the moment they approached us on the front line outside Aleppo.
The Iranian Revolutionary Guards - no longer merely advisers but fighting troops alongside the Syrian army - emerged on the roadside in their grey-patterned camouflage fatigues, speaking good though not perfect Arabic but chatting happily in Persian when they knew we could understand them.
Why, they asked politely - they were courteous, but very suspicious in the first few minutes - were we filming this part of their line? A mortar exploded in a field to our right - sent over either by Isis or by Jabhat al-Nusra - and we had
© www.frontpagemag.comIranian Revolutionary Guard now in Syria.
filmed its cloud of brown smoke as it drifted eastwards.
I told the Iranian commander, a tall, bespectacled and thoughtful man, that we were journalists. I got the impression that these men wanted to talk to us - which proved to be the case - but they were wary of us, as if we were dangerous aliens.
"When I heard that there was an English reporter asking for information in this area," the man said, "I said to myself: 'England is helping Isis and an English reporter is here asking for information'. The immediate thing in my mind was, 'Where is this information going to go?'"
He apologised. We must not think he was hostile to us. "If you were in my place and you were fighting a harsh and brutal enemy like Isis in this location - and this is our front line - you would ask yourself this question: '
What is the English reporter doing here - why should he be allowed here?'"
Comment: SOTT Satire Desk: the 2015 'Oscars'