It’s the usual issue in Syria — that of money.

In summer 2013, as-Safira was de-facto overrun by the insurgency. That is: Nusra, Ahrar and various FSyA groups almost captured the entire…

It’s the usual issue in Syria — that of money. Assad had no money to run these factories properly already at earlier times. They were manufacturing just some small amounts of ammo for usual military’s purposes.

In summer 2013, as-Safira was de-facto overrun by the insurgency. That is: Nusra, Ahrar and various FSyA groups almost captured the entire place before they were stopped by the IRGC’s counterattack. Most of factories were damaged, some even destroyed by the time the IRGC recovered the place (with quite some help from the Daesh, which blocked insurgent reinforcements from reaching the area), in November 2013 (this is what the ‘Tiger Force’ then claimed as its own victory, i.e. the ‘Operation Northern Storm’, which was rather funny given that unit neverhad more than 600–800 combatants, while there were more than 3,000 insurgents and Jihadists in as-Safira area).

Once in control, the Iranians had to rebuild almost everything — at their own expenses, of course.

That said, Iranians began exporting arms to Syria — foremost ballistic missiles — already back in mid-2000s. Thus there was already a quite extensive ‘fundament’ for what they did there (in as-Safira) ever since November 2013.