Iran says it will not allow key ally Syria to fall
Image by: GORAN TOMASEVIC / REUTERS
Tehran will continue to back Syria under President Bashar al-Assad, which acts as a pillar of an Iranian-led regional alliance, top envoy Saeed Jalili told Assad in Damascus on Tuesday.
"What is happening in Syria is not an internal issue but a conflict between the axis of resistance on one hand, and the regional and global enemies of this axis on the other," said Jalili, a top aide to Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
Iran has accused Turkey and Gulf countries of arming the opposition in Syria, in collusion with the United States and Israel, to overthrow the regime of Tehran's key ally, Assad.
In the same meeting, Assad said he was determined to crush the 17-month rebellion against his regime and cleanse the country of "terrorists," according to state news agency SANA.
"The Syrian people and their government are determined to purge the country of terrorists and to fight terrorism without respite," Assad told Jalili, visiting envoy of Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
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