ALEPPO, Syria — The Syrian regime's decision to reduce the readiness of its army and armed forces has raised a panoply of questions related to the motivation and timing behind the decision on the military and economic conditions in Syria and raised the question as to whether the regime is seeking to convey specific messages to parties influencing Syrian affairs.

On Jan. 10, Syrian President Bashar al-Assad issued a circular ordering a rollback of army mobilization to regular level, meaning the level maintained nine years ago before the start of the conflict.

According to the Enab Baladi opposition website, the decision stipulated “scaling down the combat readiness of the Syrian military departments by the order of 66% to 33% for administrative departments, 80% to 50% for military units affiliated thereto and 100% to 80% for ground forces and the navy. In hospitals, however, readiness was maintained at 80%.”

Mohammed Adeeb, a political science researcher who lives in the countryside of Aleppo, told Al-Monitor, “To maintain the same level of combat readiness, the regime requires a continued flow of support and funding. The regime has been garnering support from Iran ever since it joined its ally, the Assad regime, in the war against the Syrian revolution. However, it seems that Iranian funding for the regime’s army has stopped due to the economic conditions and international sanctions imposed on the Iranian regime.”