Iran's Top Security Official Warns against Military Action, Occupation of Syria by Foreign States

TEHRAN (defapress)- Secretary of Iran's Supreme National Security Council (SNSC) Ali Shamkhani warned of the dangers posed to the regional states by certain countries' military action or occupation of Syria.

News ID: 68102

Date: 15 January 2018 - 16:44

"The future of regions occupied by the terrorists in Syria could only be decided on the scene of powerful confrontation against the Takfiri groups and reliance on people's power and no party may ignore the necessity for battle against the terrorist groups or try to trouble this trend on the pretext of ceasefire," Shamkhani said at a meeting with Syrian Parliament Speaker Hammoudeh Sabbagh in Tehran on Monday.

He underlined that the political path should continue in a bid to strengthen the sovereignty of the legal government in Syria and widen its superiority over all Syrian territories.

"Any political or military action to target a part of the Syrian territories which are under the terrorist groups' control or occupation of the Syrian lands by foreign forces runs counter to people's interests, is considered as a threat to the regional countries and doomed to failure," Shamkhani said.

His remarks came after a military expert said on Sunday that Turkey's protest at the Syrian army operations in Idlib indicates its support for the terrorist groups fighting against the army, specially al-Nusra Front (Tahrir al-Sham Hay'at or the Levant Liberation Board).

General Yahya Suleiman, an expert in the strategic military fields, referred to the al-Nusra Front's recent offensive against the Syrian army positions in Southeastern Idlib, disclosing that all the weapons used by the terrorists during the attack were Turkey-made which clearly proves Ankara's ties with the militant groups in Idlib.

He referred to the fact that Ankara changes its positions once in a while in line with its interests, and said that Turkey is supporting the terrorist groups again to force the other side to make concessions during the future peace talks on Syria.

Turkey has voiced its discontent about the Syrian government forces' violations of de-escalation zones, according to the sources.

Idlib is located within one of the so-called de-escalation zones set up in Syria last September in an effort to scale back the conflict.

While Turkey has protested at the Syrian army's attacks against the militants in Idlib, Damascus says that its offensives are aimed at al-Nusra which is considered as a terrorist group.