The Iranian economy is finding it difficult to cope with the economic sanctions, but the extensive financial aid to Syrian President Bashar Assad has not stopped – and is creating a rift at the top of the Iranian regime, Ynet reported Monday, October 1. The London-based Times newspaper reported Monday that Tehran has transferred some $10 billion in support of Assad’s war against Syrian rebels. According to the report, defectors from Assad’s forces have told coordinators for the rebel Free Syrian Army in the Gulf that Iran has been paying the salaries of Syrian government troops for months, as well as providing weapons and logistical support. Western intelligence sources say the failure to decide the Syrian conflict in favor of Assad has caused a split between Iranian supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and Iran’s spymaster in the past 14 years, Qassem Suleimani.