Rouhani: US Attack on Syria An Attempt to Disrupt Peace Talks
TEHRAN (Tasnim) – Iranian President Hassan Rouhani condemned the recent US missile attack on a Syrian army’s airbase, describing the assault as an attempt to impede the process of peace talks for ending the six-year crisis in the Arab country.
“We are confident that those (US) strikes (on Syria), which were an attempt to disrupt the process of Syrian-Syrian peace talks, would not affect the future of the fight against terrorism and the fate of Syria,” Rouhani said in a telephone conversation with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad on Sunday.
It came after the US launched the missile attack on the Syrian government’s Shayrat Airfield near Homs with 59 Tomahawk missiles on Friday on the pretext that the Damascus government has allegedly launched a chemical attack on the town of Khan Sheikhoun in Idlib Province.
Elsewhere in the conversation, the Iranian president denounced Washington’s “bogus and undocumented claims” about the chemical attack, saying the US move would only improve the morale of the terrorists that have suffered heavy losses in Syria and Iraq in recent months.
President Rouhani then reiterated that ending the war in Syria requires a political solution alone, and said, “Further coordination among Iran, Syria, and Russia could prove very effectual in the fight against terrorism.”
For his part, Assad described the US attack as a ploy to embolden the terrorist groups and weaken the Syrian army and nation.
The missile strike has just strengthened the Syrian nation’s resolve to defeat the terrorist groups completely, the Syrian president added.
Syria has been gripped by civil war since March 2011 with various terrorist groups, including Daesh (ISIL), controlling parts of it.
