LONDON — Iran has succeeded in transporting weapons to its allies in Lebanon and Syria.

Western security sources said Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps was employing at least two Iranian airlines to sustain the arms flow to the regime of Syrian President Bashar Assad as well as Hizbullah.

The sources said IRGC was assigning passenger and cargo aircraft from Iran Air and Yas Air for weekly weapons flights to Beirut and Damascus.

“Iran has always used commercial aircraft to fly weapons secretly to Damascus,” a Western source said. “But now, with NATO efforts to stop the flow, Iran is using the commercial air route nearly exclusively.”

Over the last year, Turkey has reported several interceptions of suspected weapons aircraft to Syria.

In one incident, Ankara said it seized a Yas Air passenger jet with weapons and bombs in March 2011.

The German television network ZDF reported that Iran Air and Yas Air have been the main vehicles of Teheran’s arms supply to Assad and Hizbullah. ZDF did not identify the weapons but said the two airlines, which fly Airbus planes, conduct frequent weapons flights to Damascus.

“Iran Air and Yas Air transported weapons and explosives repeatedly to Beirut and Damascus,” ZDF said on May 30.

Iran has acknowledged supplying the Syrian military. IRGC Quds Force deputy commander Ismail Ghani said his force was playing a major role in directing Assad’s troops.

“If the Islamic republic [of Iran] was not present in Syria, the massacre of people would have happened on a much larger scale,” Ghani said. (Copyright © 2012 East West Services, Inc. 06/01/12)