Iran Underlines Continued Assistance to Iraq, Syria in War on Terrorism

Rasa - Iranian Defense Minister Brigadier General Amir Hatami announced on Thursday that his country will continue its anti-terrorism efforts to help the Syrian and Iraqi nations get rid of terrorist groups.

News ID: 437111

Date: 05 April 2018 - 23:35

RNA - Speaking at a meeting with his Kazakh counterpart Beibut Atamkulov in Moscow, General Hatami said Iran is well informed of the roots and dimensions of terrorism and will assist the Syrians and Iraqis to uproot it in their countries.

He blamed the US and Israel for the spread of extremism in the region, and said, "Using terrorism to gain more interest and loot regional countries' wealth is among the goals of the hegemony."

Atamkulov, for his part, expressed pleasure with the meeting, and said that the cooperation between Iran, Turkey and Russia against terrorism in Syria is important.

In a relevant development on Wednesday, Iranian, Russian and Turkish presidents underlined in a joint statement at the end of a tripartite meeting on Syria that they would continue their cooperation in order to annihilate the ISIL, Al-Nusra Front and all other Al-Qaeda-affiliated individuals, groups, undertakings and entities.

"The three heads of state expressed their satisfaction in the outcomes of the first year of the Astana meetings held since January 2017, underlined that the Astana format had been the only effective international initiative that had helped reduce violence across Syria and had contributed to peace and stability in Syria, giving impetus to the Geneva process in order to find a lasting political solution to the Syrian conflict," a joint statement issued at the end of the tripartite meeting in Ankara said on Wednesday.

According to Fars News Agancy, Iran's Hassan Rouhani, Russia's Vladimir Putin and Turkey's Recep Tayyip Erdoğan further reaffirmed their determination to continue their active cooperation on Syria for the achievement of lasting ceasefire between the conflicting parties and advancement of the political process envisaged by the UN Security Council Resolution 2254.

Rouhani, Putin and Erdogan also emphasized their strong and continued commitment to the sovereignty, independence, unity, territorial integrity and non-sectarian character of Syria. They highlighted that none of the actions, no matter by whom they were undertaken, should undermine these principles, confirmed by relevant UN resolutions and by the will of the representatives of all segments of the Syrian society. They rejected all attempts to create new realities on the ground under the pretext of combating terrorism and expressed their determination to stand against separatist agendas aimed at undermining the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Syria as well as the national security of neighboring countries.

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