صراط عشق صراط عشق
Iranian Defense Minister Brigadier General Mohammad Reza Ashtiani reiterated Tehran’s stance on the crisis in Syria, and said that the US should end its illegal presence and withdraw its forces from the war-ravaged country with no delay.
Brig. Gen. Ashtiani made the remarks in a meeting with his Syrian counterpart, Lieutenant General Ali Mahmoud Abbas, in Tehran on Wednesday.
“We believe that the illegitimate and illegal presence of occupying troops on Syrian soil is destabilizing and destructive. Therefore, we stress the necessity for [respecting] Syria’s territorial integrity and the withdrawal of all occupying forces [from Syria], particularly the American occupiers,” he stated.
The Iranian minister also pointed to the Israeli regime’s acts of aggression against Syria, saying the regime only understands the language of force and it should not be allowed to make further aggression against Syria.
In his remarks, the official described Syria as a major member of the resistance front and said it’s necessary to invest efforts to boost the Arab country’s defense power.
The Syrian minister, for his part, hailed Iran’s role in supporting efforts by the resistance front to safeguard West Asia security, and vowed that Damascus will work to boost cooperation with Tehran.
Since 2011, Syria has been gripped by foreign-backed militancy, as a result of which Daesh (also known as ISIS or ISIL) and other terror groups emerged in the country.
US forces were first sent to Syria in 2014, beginning with a contingent of special operators followed by more conventional ground troops the next year, most embedded with Kurdish fighters in the country’s oil-rich Northeast. Though then-President Barack Obama maintained the deployment was focused only on combating the Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS, ISIL or Daesh) terrorists, Washington had long intervened in Syria’s war against terror groups, sending and overseeing countless arms shipments to militants seeking to overthrow the government in Damascus.
Though American involvement in the conflict slowed under the next administration, in 2019 President Donald Trump noted some US troops would remain in Syria “for the oil”, openly suggesting Washington would simply “keep” the energy resources.
Subsequent reporting in 2020 would later reveal that the Trump administration had approved a deal between a US energy firm and Kurdish authorities controlling Northeast Syria to “develop and export the region’s crude oil” – a contract immediately condemned as “illegal” by Damascus. However, while that particular deal would later fall through after President Joe Biden took office, Syrian authorities have continued to accuse Washington of plundering its resources and some 900 US troops remain in the country illegally.
Syria, Iran, Russia and China have repeatedly called on Washington to stop plundering Syria’s national resources and respect the sovereignty and territorial integrity of the Arab country, calling on foreign occupation forces and their mercenaries to leave the war-ravaged country.
Israel frequently targets military positions inside Syria, especially those of the Lebanese resistance movement Hezbollah which has played a key role in helping the Syrian Army in its fight against foreign-backed terrorists.
The Tel Aviv regime rarely comments on its cowardly attacks on Syrian territories, which many see as a knee-jerk reaction to the Syrian government’s success in confronting and decimating terrorism.
Israel has been one of the main supporters of terrorist groups that oppose the democratically-elected government of President Bashar Al-Assad since the foreign-backed militancy erupted in Syria.
Iran maintains an advisory mission in Syria at the request of Damascus with the aim of helping the war-ravaged country get rid of the foreign-backed militants who have been fighting against the democratically-elected Syrian government since 2011. Several members of the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) have so far martyred in battle against terrorists in the war-torn Syria.
