Syrian people shattered Israel’s invincibility myth: Iran FM

Rasa - Iran's Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif says the Syrian people have shattered the myth of invincibility of the Israeli regime through their resistance against Tel Aviv’s acts of aggression during past years.

News ID: 437088

Date: 03 April 2018 - 22:57

RNA - Zarif made the remarks while speaking to reporters upon arriving in the Turkish capital, Ankara, when he and Iran's President Hassan Rouhani are to take part in a tripartite summit on Syria.

The summit will also be attended by Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin.

“Everybody must accept that firstly, the problem of Syria must be solved through a political solution, and secondly, accept that this political solution must be reached by the Syrian people,” Zarif said.

Iran's top diplomat added, “Of course, the Zionist regime (of Israel) has continued its acts of aggression [against Syria], but we recently witnessed the shattering of the myth of the Zionist regime’s invincibility through the resistance of the Syrian people.”

On February 10, the Syrian military downed an intruding Israeli F-16 warplane returning from a bombing raid on an army base in central Syria.

The Israeli military confirmed that one F-16 had gone down in northern Israel and that its two pilots had ejected and had been located and transferred to hospital. It later announced that one of the pilots was in serious condition.

Syrian government forces on March 28 discovered a considerable amount of Israeli-made landmines and grenades left behind by Takfiri terrorist groups inside a secret underground tunnel in Eastern Ghouta region on the outskirts of the capital Damascus.

Syria’s state-run television network reported that army troopers made the discovery in the town of Harasta, located 10 kilometers (6.2 miles) from the center of Damascus, as they were combing the areas of hidden ordnance and unexploded devices.

The Iranian foreign minister added that foreign countries should accelerate the process of the settlement of the Syria crisis through political channels instead of making decisions for the Syrian people, drawing up the Arab country's constitution, and provoking the negotiating sides.

Zarif said the US presence in the region has led to the widening of ethnic gaps in Syria and Washington's short-sighted policies on the war-ravaged country have resulted in "serious threats" to the region.

The Iranian foreign minister emphasized that empowering the Syrian government and providing it with more support were the best ways to counter the US.

Russia, Iran and Turkey have been acting as guarantor states in peace talks for Syria in Astana, Kazakhstan. The three countries have helped set up de-escalation zones across Syria to reduce fighting on the ground.

According to Press TV, only after US President Donald Trump talked of a pullout from Syria in the near future, a new report said the US military had been working on plans to dispatch dozens of additional troops to the northern parts of the Arab state.

Citing several US defense and administration officials, CNN reported on Monday that the plans have been under discussion for several days and were first considered before Trump’s remarks last week.

The US president announced on March 29 that Washington would withdraw from Syria "very soon,” just hours after the Pentagon highlighted the need for American troops to remain in the war-torn country.

"We will be coming out of Syria, like, very soon. Let the other people take care of it now," Trump said during a speech on infrastructure spending in the state of Ohio.

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