Iranian Speaker’s Advisor: Damascus to Remain in Resistance Axis

“Damascus will powerfully remain in the Resistance Axis,” Amir Abdollahian wrote on his Twitter account on Sunday.

He posted his Twitter in reaction to the recent attack of the US and its allies on Syria, and said, “Syria’s capital Damascus will remain in Resistance Axis with full power and military operations launched by the US, the UK and France in Syria is flagrantly against UN Charter.”

US, British and French forces launched over 100 missiles on Syria early Saturday morning, and Russia says Damascus has managed to dodge 71.

In a televised address to the nation, US President Donald Trump said the three nations partnered in the missile launch.

The strikes were the biggest overt attack by the three Western powers against Syria in the country’s seven-year-old civil war, which has pitted the US and its allies against Russia.

Other NATO members refrained from partnership in the attack, although NATO secretary general voiced his support for the move.

Israel was also absent from Saturday’s strike, fearing Iran’s response. After a recent missile strike on Syria’s T4 base that killed 12, including 7 Iranian military advisors, Tel Aviv has been on guard in anticipation of Iran’s tough reprisal.

Reports coming out of a national security meeting in the White House three days ago said Defense Secretary James Mattis opposed striking targets that would provoke Tehran and Moscow’s response, urging Trump and National Security Advisor John Bolton to think wisely and narrow down the scope of the attack.

The Pentagon claimed the strikes targeted a research center in greater Damascus and a chemical weapons storage facility and a command post west of Homs, while the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons has officially stated complete disarmament of Syria since two years ago.

The missile strikes took place as a team of OPCW is in Damascus to probe the alleged chemical incident in Douma last week, but the trio western allies didn’t wait for the result of their work for somehow unknown reasons.

Following the attack, Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Seyed Ali Khamenei voiced strong condemnation for the aggression, and described the American, British and French heads of state as war criminals.

“This early morning strike against Syria is a crime. I clearly declare that the US, French and British heads of state are criminals and committed a crime,” Ayatollah Khamenei said.

Meantime, the Iranian foreign ministry also strongly condemned the attack, warning that the aggression would entail dire repercussions in the region and beyond.

Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif in a phone conversation with his Syrian counterpart Walid al-Muallem deplored the Saturday morning US-led missile strikes against Syria, describing the move as “criminal and illegal”.

Also, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani condemned the missile strikes, stressing that the attacks were the result of Washington and its allies’ anger and desperation at the recent defeats sustained by the western-backed terrorists in Eastern Ghouta of Damascus.

“The US aggression on the region will lead to nothing but annihilation and destruction,” Rouhani said, asking whether the US, the Zionist regime of Israel and their allies, specially the UK and France, have not learned a lesson from the incidents in the past 17 years.

Also in a phone conversation with President Assad, Rouhani vowed to continue support for Syria after the Saturday morning strikes.

During the phone conversation on Saturday, President Rouhani told Assad that Tehran will stand by Damascus, and voiced confidence that “this aggression would not weaken the determination of the Syrian people in its war against terrorism”.

The Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC), meantime, in a statement strongly condemned a recent attack by the United States, Britain and France on Damascus, and said such onslaughts would boost the Syrian nation’s resolve in its fight against terrorism.

“The US, Britain and France carried out the criminal and deceitful attack in Syria based on a false claim that the Syrian government had used chemical weapons in the militant-held town of Douma in Eastern Ghouta region,” the IRGC’s statement said.

Also, Deputy Commander of Iran’s Islamic Revolution Guards Corps Brigadier General Yadollah Javani warned the US to “wait for the repercussions of its attack on Syria”, saying that the Saturday offensive “gave the Resistance Front a more open hand for showing reaction to such moves by the US and its allies”.