Russia and Iran Are Winning a War of Images in Syria

Helle Dale /

A fighter with the U.S.-backed Free Syrian Army stands Oct. 16 near a weapon aimed at forces loyal to the nation's dictator, Bashar al-Assad, in Deraa, Syria. (Photo: Reuters/Newscom)

Helle C. Dale is the Heritage Foundation's senior fellow in public diplomacy. Her work focuses on the U.S. government’s institutions and programs for strategic outreach to the public of foreign countries, as well as more traditional diplomacy. Read her research.

The leaders of Russia and Iran both have ramped up their propaganda machines to project images of surging regional influence within Syria. This aggressive news management by Russian President Vladimir Putin and Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, not so incidentally, coincides with the waning of U.S. power and influence.



Since the start of the Russian bombing campaign Sept. 30, the Russian media have flooded the airwaves with images of aerial strikes against targets said by Russia to be ISIS military installations.
Russia Today (or RT, that nation’s global news network) shows images day after day of what are supposed to be successful bombing raids. Also on view: a Russian fighter apparently chasing a U.S. drone over Syria.
Meanwhile, domestic Russian viewers see Syria updates almost continuously as part of a coordinated government media campaign to sell the war.

Recent images include photo-ops from Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s surprise overnight visit to Moscow, in which the dictator beamed and shook hands with Putin and Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov.
Meanwhile, President Obama is shown huddling with U.S.-backed Arab leaders, looking for security guarantees. None of them looks very confident.
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As for Iran, the regime in Tehran fully supports and cooperates with Russia’s intervention in Syria. It advances the view that the United States trains and equips terrorists, who must be destroyed.
In a recent analysis, the Iranian news agency Mehrnews took up the subject of American “Soft War vs. Soft Power,” as reflected in the writings of Harvard political scientist Joseph Nye. It compared Nye’s work with the speeches of Khamenei.
Their message is clear: U.S. and Western “soft power” supporting the Arab Spring is a “soft war” against Iranian interests. Therefore, Iran must fight back.
U.S. allies in the Middle East clearly are targets of the psychological impact of Iranian-Russian cooperation. For now, the message goes, Iran and Russia have the initiative.