RNA - "The war against Syria is a global war fought with the support of the US and its hirelings in the region using the Takfiri groups as an instrument, and its goal is weakening Syria's role and destroying the Resistance Front," Mahmoud said, addressing a forum at Tehran's Allameh Tabatabayee University.
Long before the start of the war in Syria, he said, Colin Powell who was the US Secretary of State Colin Powell under the Bush administration brought a message from the US president to his Syrian counterpart in 2003 which was not related to the internal issues and democracy in Syria; rather it spoke of the necessity for Damascus to cut relations with the Resistance Front and Iran and expel the Palestinian groups from Syria.
In similar remarks last year, Mahmoud termed the US-Western countries' anti-terrorism coalition a big lie.
"The world's public opinion has come up with the conclusion that the formed Western coalition has been established to ensure the long life of terrorism and extremism in the region," Mahmud said in a meeting with Chairman of the Iranian Parliament's National Security and Foreign Policy Commission Alaeddin Boroujerdi in Tehran at the time.
The Syrian ambassador appreciated Iran's incessant support for the Syrian nation and government, arguing that the Islamic Republic's moves in the Middle East have always been aimed at restoration of peace and stability and uprooting terrorism and extremism.
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