Iranian Envoy Blames US, Israel for Developments in Syria

The US and Israel have hatched plots to spark tension in Syria, but the country’s President Bashar al-Assad is properly handling the situation, a senior Iranian diplomat said.
“A major part of the events that are happening in Syria have been sponsored by the US and the Zionist regime (of Israel),” Tehran’s Ambassador to Moscow Seyed Mahmoud Reza Sajjadi told reporters on Saturday.

“As far as developments in Syria are concerned, the important issue is that the country is considered as the frontline of the confrontation with Zionist regime’s aggressions,” he stated.

“For the last two years, the regime’s leaders, in collaboration with Americans, have been trying to spark tension and unrests in Syria,” Sajjadi cautioned.

He further dismissed the claims that the unrests in Syria are a massive popular uprising, and said Syrian President Bashar al-Assad has and will successfully handle the situation in his country thanks to his wisdom and vigilance.

Military sources in Syria said on Thursday that 78 soldiers and 70 civilians had been killed since the unrest broke out six weeks ago.

Syrian officials dismissed the allegations made on some satellite TV channels about the withdrawal of some members of the ruling Bath party and also denied reports that 450 people were killed since the unrest erupted, calling it “poison of false propaganda.”

Army units are still pursuing remnants of the “extremist terrorist groups” in the Southern province of Daraa to restore calm to the city, Syrian officials stated.

Daraa has been the flashpoint of more than five weeks of protests in Syria.