Iran has gone into fierce competition with Russia over Syria’s education sector. This was most recently reflected in a Damascus statement on Russia offering 500 scholarships for undergraduate and postgraduate programs in various fields for the academic year (2020-2021). The announcement was a few days after Iranian Education Minister Mohsen Hajimirzaei voiced his country’s efforts to introduce the Persian language to schools in Syria. Hajimirzaei stressed the importance of including ...