Iranian FM Mohammad Javad Zarif Warns against Foreign Intervention in Syria

Iran’s new Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif urged regional and global actors to avoid foreign intervention in crisis-hit Syria, warning that violence would spill over into the entire region otherwise.
“Any kind of foreign intervention in Syria would only lead to fratricide and bloodshed and increase concerns over sectarianism and extremism in the entire region,” the Iranian foreign minister said following a cabinet meeting here in Tehran on Wednesday.

“Resolving the Syrian issue requires a decision-making based on wider views,” he continued.

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.

Hundreds of people, including members of the security forces, have been killed, when some protest rallies turned into armed clashes.

The government blames outlaws, saboteurs, and armed terrorist groups for the deaths, stressing that the unrest is being orchestrated from abroad.

In October 2011, calm was almost restored in the Arab state after President Bashar al-Assad started a reform initiative in the country, but Israel, the US and its Arab allies sought hard to bring the country into chaos through any possible means. Tel Aviv, Washington and some Arab capitals have been staging various plots to topple President al-Assad, who is well known in the world for his anti-Israeli stances.