Assad Meeting with Ayatollah Khamenei Proves Iran Role in Syria’s Future: Analyst
TEHRAN (Tasnim) – A senior expert on Middle East developments hailed a Monday meeting of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad with Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyed Ali Khamenei and said it proved that Iran has a major role in Syria’s future.
Speaking to the Tasnim News Agency, Sabah Zanganeh, Iran’s former envoy to the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC), hailed Assad’s trip to Iran as “exceptional” and said after his short visit to Russia and meeting with President Vladimir Putin, Assad made his second trip to Tehran, which indicates growing ties between Iran and Syria.
He described forging closer relations between the two countries as the major objective behind the visit, and said as Assad has asserted, the ties would develop in the future.
“...the relations will expand in the future in the commercial and economic dimensions, and the Islamic Republic of Iran will have a significant role in the reconstruction of Syria,” the analyst went on to say.
Assad met with Ayatollah Khamenei in Tehran on Monday. Speaking at the meeting, the Leader praised the resistance of Syria’s government and people that led to the defeat of Washington and its regional mercenaries.
Ayatollah Khamenei emphasized that the triumph of the resistance front in Syria has made Americans angry and prompted them to hatch new plots, adding, “The issue of the buffer zone, which Americans seek to establish in Syria, is among those dangerous plots that must be categorically rejected and stood against.”
Conflicts erupted in Syria back in 2011, when a small group of opposition forces took up arms against Damascus.
Soon, however, a mix of international terrorists and paid mercenaries mingled with and then largely sidestepped the armed Syrian opposition groups, effectively turning the Arab country into a battlefield for foreign governments opposed to Assad.
But the Syrian military, with advisory military help from Iran and Russia — and a Russian aerial bombardment campaign — has retaken control of much of the country, and the conflict is generally believed to be winding down.