Iran pledges support for Syria

[Loki]

Syria crisis: Iran pledges support for 'vital partner'



Iran's security chief has told President Bashar al-Assad that Syria is part of a vital regional alliance that Tehran will not allow to be broken.

During talks in Damascus, Saeed Jalili said Syria was an essential part of an "axis of resistance".

The statement came a day after Syrian Prime Minister Riad Hijab defected to the opposition.

Syrian TV showed President Assad greeting the envoy - the first time he has been seen on TV for two weeks.

President Assad's TV appearance was his first since 22 July - four days after a bomb killed four security chiefs in Damascus.

State TV said Mr Assad had told Mr Jalili of "the determination of the people and government of Syria to cleanse the country from the terrorists and fight against terrorism unreservedly".

He said Syria would "continue on the path of national dialogue" and that it was "capable of thwarting the foreign conspiracies".

Mr Jalili was quoted as saying: "Iran will not any allow the axis of resistance, of which it considers Syria to be an essential part, to be broken in any way."

Correspondents say "axis of resistance" refers to Iran, Syria, Hezbollah in Lebanon and the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas in Gaza.

Arriving in Damascus, Mr Jalili said only a "Syrian solution" would end the crisis.

Tehran says it is planning an international meeting on Syria on Thursday.

It is also trying to secure the release of a group of Iranians abducted by rebels from a bus in Damascus on Saturday.

As well as Mr Jalili's visit to Damascus, Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi is travelling to Turkey for talks in Ankara.

'US held responsible'

An unconfirmed report from the rebels has suggested that three of the 48 hostages they are holding have been killed by army shelling.

Mr Jalili, who heads Iran's supreme national security council and is considered a senior aide to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, had travelled to Damascus from Lebanon.

He told reporters that "kidnapping innocent people is not acceptable anywhere", Iran's official news agency Irna reported.

Iran's Deputy Foreign Minister Hossein Amir Abdollahian has said it holds the US responsible for the hostages' safety.

He said the US was supporting "terrorist groups" and despatching weapons to Syria, and was therefore responsible for the lives of those abducted.

Rebels say the group are members of Iran's Revolutionary Guard. Tehran says they are pilgrims who had been heading for a Shia religious site.

[Supreme American]

If Iran intervened, I suspect Obama would do as much as he did when N. Korea decided to lob artillery shells into S. Korean towns, which is nothing. He doesn't seem to have the balls to act without NATO or the UN.

[Kemalisté]

Nice move. Ba'ath regime must be defended as good as possible.

[RagnarLodbrok666]

Iran and Syria have my support too. The more rebel Islamists they blow up the better.

[Übermensch]

Nice move. Ba'ath regime must be defended as good as possible.

I agree is one of the last anti-zionist and anti-globalist states in the world, stop with u$rael tyranny!

[StonyArabia]

So a proxy war has taken place.

[Contra Mundum]

If Iran intervened, I suspect Obama would do as much as he did when N. Korea decided to lob artillery shells into S. Korean towns, which is nothing. He doesn't seem to have the balls to act without NATO or the UN.

What would you want Obama to do about NK? South Korea would oppose any war with the north because Seoul would be destroyed with a barrage of missiles and artillery. It's only a few miles from the DMZ. Border skirmishes are nothing new. NK has opened fire on border areas before, and committed acts of terror for decades. The shelling of the island didn't surprise anyone.

SK has one of the strongest militaries in the world, and they aren't stupid enough to start a war over that and lose their capital city. Not to mention risking Chinese intervention.

And why should the US intervene in Syria?