Ali Akbar Velayati who was speaking to Al-Alam TV Network’s ‘From Tehran’ aired Friday night, said that Russia cooperated with Iran in Syria in fighting terrorist groups, a thing western sources mentioned as well; “we do not deny working with Russia in Syria and Iraq; we are friends and allies of Syria and Iraq,” he added.
“Since the early days of unrest in Syria, US and western-backed terrorists roamed the country, purportedly to break the anti-Zionist resistance led by Syria in the region; Iran knows well this critical issue and would not hide its support to Bashar al-Assad, and will continue its support; Russia shares this position with us and naturally cooperate with us in Syria; we would not cover up our seeking advice and giving it to Russia and Iraq about Syria, just to neutralize the illegitimate foreign plan to overthrow Syrian democratically-elected government,” he emphasized to Al-Alam program.
Velayati also said that Russian air strikes against ISIL could target the terrorist group’s strongholds in Iraq should Iraqi government had requested Russia to target ISIL; “we do not think that Russia would refrain from carrying out the Iraqi request,” he added.
He roundly rejected any plan which excluded Assad and Syrian current government from the country’s political future; “any Iranian plan for Syria should have Syrian people and government consent behind itself; our plan would not identify any viable alternative to Syrian current government which fought steadfastly the enemies of resistance; as far as we know, Syrian people have also redlines among which is fighting Zionist regime, and any government disputing these redlines cannot assume power in Syria,” Velayati told Al-Alam. “The general content of the plan suggests that a government should rule Syria which has the support of the majority; Bashar al-Assad, we believe, would win another election, since he has made many sacrifices for Syrian people, and I am sure they will vote for Assad with the most probability,” he asserted.
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