Iranian Leader's Top Military Aide:

US Seeks Continued Conflicts, Gaps in Region

Rasa - Top Military Aide to the Iranian Supreme Leader Major General Yahya Rahim Safavi warned of the US provocative acts in the region, specially Syria, adding that Washington seeks to keep the regional conflicts alive.

News ID: 435984

Date: 25 January 2018 - 01:06

RNA - "The US has now put on agenda keeping conflict zones and using them to widen the rifts in the region and it has also focused on Iranophobia and is after pursuing its political, economic and military objectives through this means," Rahim Safavi said in an interview with the state TV on Monday night.

He cautioned that Washington wants to boost the morale of those terrorists stationed in Syria's Idlib province, and reminded that the US has deployed troops in a region in Syria that enjoys rich gas and oil resources.

Rahim Safavi stressed that Iran, Turkey and Russia are seriously opposed to the US presence in Syria, and voiced certainty that the Syrian government will succeed in retaking all territories from occupiers.

The US-led coalition announced earlier this month that it is helping to create a new Border Security Force to fight terrorists in Syria. The unit, stationed along the Syrian border with Iraq and Turkey, as well as along the Euphrates River Valley, is expected to be comprised of up to 30,000 people. SDF veterans will make half of the unit, while the other half are yet to be recruited.

Damascus, Moscow and Ankara have strongly blasted the US new decision to form a Border Security Force.

The United States' military support for the militia first began under the administration of US President Donald Trump’s predecessor, Barack Obama, which provided Kurds with weapons and training.

Washington also continues providing Kurdish fighters with more military hardware in Syria despite US President's promise to his Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan to halt arms shipment to the Kurdish fighters.

Ankara had said late November 2017 that Trump told Erdogan that he had issued instructions that weapons should not be provided to Kurdish fighters in Syria.

According to reports, the US plans to keep its troops in Syria long after the defeat of ISIL. Washington has been justifying its deployment of ground troops in Syria, which violates the embattled nation’s sovereignty, by citing the need to fight ISIL.

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