Spokesman:

No Change in Iran's Stance on Syria

Rasa - Foreign Ministry Spokesman Bahram Qassemi underlined that Iran's stance on supporting the Syrian nation and government in their ongoing fight against the terrorist groups has not changed.

News ID: 428992

Date: 18 April 2017 - 22:48

RNA - "Iran has adopted a clear stance concerning Syria," Qassemi said.

He reiterated that Iran strongly condemned the chemical attack in Syria and was the first to ask for formation of an international fact-finding committee to look into the issue.

"What happened in Syria was suspicious," the foreign ministry spokesman said.

Qassemi underlined that for years, Syria has been under a United Nations' ban regarding possession of chemical weapons and the country had been disarmed.

“It was crystal-clear and there was no need for more clarity,” he said.

The Iranian foreign ministry spokesman added that but evidently, despite the fact that Syria had been disarmed, some terrorist groups with the help of some regional countries managed to access special armaments and funneled them into Syria.

“If there is anything, we should look for them elsewhere,” Qassemi said referring to the possible source of the chemical weapons used in the town of Khan Sheikhoun in Idlib province.

Washington alleges that the Syrian government has used the chemical weapons against its own people, something Damascus strongly rejects.

In relevant remarks on Sunday, Senior Advisor to the Iranian Parliament Speaker Hossein Amir Abdollahian blasted the western countries for supporting the terrorist groups in Syria, and said the US deliberately attacked Syria's Shayrat airbase with cruise missiles in Homs province to boost the morale of the terrorist groups.

"The US missile attacks not improved the terrorists' low-spirit, it also persuaded them to commit more terrorist crimes against women and children in Fua’a and Kafraya," Amir Abdollahian said.

The Iranian parliament speaker's advisor, meantime, appreciated the Syrian government's efforts to rescue residents of Fua’a and Kafraya from terrorists' hands, and said, "The resistance of the Syrian people and patience of the residents of Fua’a and Kafraya are admirable."

Also on Sunday, Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister for Arab and African Affairs Hossein Jaberi Ansari took the warmongers and supporters of terrorist groups responsible for the Saturday suicide attack on buses full of evacuees as they waited in a rebel-held area on the outskirts of Aleppo.

The scenes of martyrdom of these people are really painful and "a new scandal for the warmongers" and those who "have been instrumentally using terrorism for over 6 years" in Syria, Jaberi Ansari said.

He extended his condolences to the Syrian people and families of the victims, and said the best soothing for them is all-out and sincere efforts to end the devastating and deadly war in Syria.

The death toll in a blast that occurred near a bus convoy evacuating residents from Shiite towns of Fua'a and Kafraya in Idlib to Aleppo rose to 100.

The car with the attacker approached the buses disguised as a vehicle transporting food.

The explosion hit the Rashideen Area on Aleppo's outskirts, as the bus was waiting for entering the city of Aleppo.

The blast was apparently caused by a suicide attacker who detonated an explosive device.

On Friday, a convoy of 75 buses arrived in Aleppo, evacuating thousands from the cities under attack.

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