Iran, a predominantly Shia country, was one of the first Muslim countries to provide support for the Bosnian Muslims (
Bosniaks, who are mainly Sunni Muslim) in the war. The
Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) sent more than five thousand tonnes of arms to the Bosnian Muslims.
[3] IRGC also supplied trainers and advisers for the Bosnian military and intelligence service.
[3] Several dozen Iranian intelligence experts joined the Bosnian Muslim intelligence agency.
[4] The Iranian
Ministry of Intelligence-supported mujahideen units trained selected Bosnian army units.
[5] The
Hezbollah (Lebanese Shia), supported by Iran, also sent fighters to the war.
[6] In 1992, Iran with the help of Turkey smuggled arms to the Bosnian Muslims.
[7] Reports of "hundreds of tons of weapons" shipped from Iran over a period of months appeared in the media in early 1995.
[8] Iranian arms were shipped through Croatia.
[9]
Robert Baer, a CIA agent stationed in Sarajevo during the war, later claimed that “In Sarajevo, the Bosnian Muslim government is a client of the Iranians . . . If it’s a choice between the CIA and the Iranians, they’ll take the Iranians any day.” By the war's end, public opinion polls showed some 86% of the Bosnian Muslim population expressed a positive attitude toward Iran.
[10]
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