Iran’s FM Calls on Foreign States to Stop Arming Syrian Rebels
TEHRAN (Tasnim) – Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif urged the countries backing armed militants in Syria to stop their supports, warning that return of foreign militants from Syria to their own countries would create further disaster.
Speaking in a panel discussion on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum (WEF) in the Swiss city of Davos on Friday, Zarif called on supporters of armed militants in Syria to put an immediate end to weapons delivery to the Arab country.
Those armed individuals who have entered Syria to fight against the government will breed catastrophe after returning to their respective homelands, the Iranian minister warned.
He reiterated that the prolonged crisis in Syria has neither a winner nor a loser, noting that the military approach only muddies the issue and leads to further bloodshed.
“I can ask all foreign forces to withdraw... to allow the Syrian people to decide their own future,” Zarif underlined.
The Iranian minister further rejected US Secretary of State John Kerry’s claims that Syrian President Bashar al-Assad had paved the way for terrorists to enter the country.
"Extremism is a product of foreign intervention and product of short-sightedness. Those who created the Taliban (in Afghanistan) ended up paying their blood for what they have created. The flames that have been created in our region will engulf everybody," Zarif said.
Syria's war that started in 2011 has killed over 130,000 people so far and forced more than 2 million to flee abroad. Another 4 million have been displaced inside the country.
Iranian officials have on different occasions insisted that a political approach would be the sole solution to the three-year-old crisis in Syria, saying that campaign against terrorism should be top on the agenda of any regional or international conference on Syria.