Iran Dismisses US Claims on Arms Shipment to Syrian Gov’t

Iran’s consulate in Basra rejected claims about sending weapons to Syria through Iraq’s airspace, and said no weapon has been found in Syria-bound Iranian planes which were inspected in Iraq so far.

“What is said about Iran using the Iraqi airspace to send weapons to Syria is a false accusation,” Iran’s Consulate General in Basra Hamid Reza Mokhtasabadi said, quoted by al-Soumeriya news website on Wednesday.

“The reason to prove our claim is that even one single weapon has not been found in the inspection of the Iranian airplanes which were flying to Syria,” he added.

Earlier, a senior Iraqi legislator also dismissed the US claims that Iran sends weapons to Syria via his country, and stressed that certain Arab regimes should be condemned for the massacre of the Syrian people.

“Iraq is opposed to arming either side of the conflict in Syria,” member of the Iraqi parliament’s Security and Defense Commission Abbas al-Bayati told FNA in September, and added, “Also the current situation and the conflicts in the country do not need advanced and heavy weapons and the clashes are taking place with light arms that Syrians themselves can supply and they don’t need Iran or Iraq.”

“Iraq is committed to non-intervention in Syria’s affairs and there is no evidence to prove transition of weapons via Iraq’s soil and air,” he added.

Bayati underlined that such claims are merely aimed at thwarting Iraq’s innovative and peaceful plans to settle the Syrian crisis, adding, “Certain Arab governments are the main culprits behind continued bloodshed in Syria.”

Syria has been experiencing unrest since March 2011 with organized attacks by well-armed gangs against Syrian police forces and border guards being reported across the country.

In October 2011, calm was eventually restored in the Arab state after President Assad started a reform initiative in the country, but Israel, the US and its Arab allies are seeking hard to bring the country into chaos through any possible means. Tel Aviv, Washington and some Arab capitals have been staging various plots in the hope of increasing unrests in Syria.

The US and its western and regional allies have long sought to topple Assad and his ruling system. Media reports said that the Syrian rebels and terrorist groups have received significantly more and better weapons in recent weeks, a crime paid for by the Persian Gulf Arab states and coordinated by the United States.

The US daily, Washington Post, reported in May that the Syrian rebels and terrorist groups battling the President Bashar al-Assad’s government have received significantly more and better weapons in recent weeks, a crime paid for by the Persian Gulf Arab states and coordinated by the United States.

The newspaper, quoting opposition activists and US and foreign officials, reported that Obama administration officials emphasized the administration has expanded contacts with opposition military forces to provide the Persian Gulf nations with assessments of rebel credibility and command-and-control infrastructure.

Opposition activists who several months ago said the rebels were running out of ammunition said in May that the flow of weapons – most bought on the black market in neighboring countries or from elements of the Syrian military in the past – has significantly increased after a decision by Saudi Arabia, Qatar and other Persian Gulf states to provide millions of dollars in funding each month.