Deputy Iranian Foreign Minister leads delegation to Damascus
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Iran has given Syria’s Bashar al-Assad another show of support, with a high-level delegation in Damascus days after pro-Assad forces — aided by Tehran and enabled by Russian airstrikes — overran the East Ghouta area near the capital.
The Islamic Republic has been essential to Assad’s survival since the Syrian uprising in March 2011, providing political backing, economic assistance, and much of the military effort on the ground. Despite suffering chemical attacks at the hands of Iraq in the 1980s, Iran has also provided propaganda cover for Assad’s denial of his own assaults, including the two chemical strikes on East Ghouta’s Douma to force its capitulation.
On Monday, Assad received Deputy Foreign Minister Hossein Jaberi Ansari and an Iranian delegation who were in talks with regime officials throughout the weekend.
President Bashar al-Assad on Monday received Senior Assistant to Iran’s Foreign Minister for Special Political Affairs, Hossein Jaberi Ansari, and the accompanying delegation.
No details of the discussion were given by Assad regime and Iranian State media, with a summary that “Jaberi Ansari briefed President al-Assad on the political efforts exerted by Iran to help end the war on Syria, discussing the latest developments regarding the situation on the ground”.
The Iranian minister also denounced the recent US-UK-France missile strikes on three facilities connected with Syria’s chemical weapons program, saying that they were “motivated by the victories of the Syrian Arab Army and its allies against terrorists”. He did not mention that they were actually in response to the Douma attacks.
Syrian State news agency SANA put out Assad’s standard lines that the three Western countries and “their pawns in the region” have been “supporting terrorists since Day One of the war on Syria”.
Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif, who is in New York, said a weekend TV interview Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif that further Israeli airstrikes in Syria would have “consequences”, although he said major escalation is unlikely.
Israel has periodically struck Assad regime sites and convoys to hinder Iran’s supply of missiles and other weapons to Lebanon’s Hezbollah, another key ally of Damascus, and to warn Iran and Hezbollah to stay out of the area in southwest Syria near the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights.
The Israelis have hit an Iranian military position in Damascus and, twice in the past three months, attacked a major base in central Syria where Iranian personnel operate. The strikes have killed several members of the Revolutionary Guards.
Zarif told CBS News:
I do not believe that we are headed towards regional war but I do believe that unfortunately, Israel has continued its violations with international law, hoping to be able to do it with impunity because of the U.S. support and trying to find smokescreens to hide behind.
The easiest answer would be to stop – to stop these acts of aggression, to stop these incursions.
4 Killed in Latest Pro-Assad Airstrikes on Southern Idlib
At least four people have been killed and 10 wounded in the latest pro-Assad airstrikes on opposition-held Idlib Province in northwest Syria.
After four hours of continuous work, Syria Civil Defense volunteers were able to retrieve the body of "Ahmed Jamous" who was kılledafter the aerial bombardment that targeted the farms of #Abdin in #Idlib southern countryside with 4 air strikes yesterday. pic.twitter.com/wSPiJJxJhJ
— The White Helmets (@SyriaCivilDef) April 24, 2018
Despite a nominal de-escalation zone and the presence of Turkey forces alongside the opposition in much of northwest Syria, Russia and the Assad regime have carried out periodic strikes as they hope to erode the territory.
ITV visits Douma hospital, finds no evidence of chemical attack: http://www.itv.com/news/2018-04-23/itv-news-hear-conflicting-accounts-over-douma-chemical-attack/
“Adnan Jarkas, a nurse who was present at the hospital when the attack took place, told ITV News under Government supervision: “We saw a civilian man bringing in his daughter in and shouting gas, gas and then he just disappeared. “After that the white helmets came in bringing people, it was chaos that’s all that happened. “Most of the case were asthma and no chemical attack that day.”
*under Government supervision*
Baroness Cox doubts chemical attack, claims Syrians support Assad: https://www.rt.com/uk/424930-syrians-support-assad-bbc/
“The Syrian people are very grateful to the Syrian Army, to Assad and, I may say, for Russian help in getting rid of the terrorists. They are the perpetrators of the most appalling atrocities and killings.”
To assist with the reading of Baroness Cox’s comment, please see our parallel article today, “‘Crazy Club’: Inside the UK Delegation Propping Up Assad’s Propaganda”
https://eaworldview.com/2018/04/crazy-club-the-uk-delegation-propping-up-assads-propaganda/