Supreme Leader’s Aide: Assad Pressured for Resistance against Zionism, Unity with Iran

Senior Advisor of The Leader of Islamic Ummah and Oppressed People Imam Sayyed Ali Khamenei for International Affairs Ali Akbar Velayati underlined that the West is exerting pressure on Syrian President Bashar al-Assad due to his resistance against the Zionist regime and his unity with Iran.

“The main charge against Bashar Assad is that he has stood against the Zionists and is an ally of Iran as the center of resistance,” Velayati said in a meeting with a Syrian parliamentary delegation in Tehran on Tuesday.

He also voiced Iran’s support for President Assad’s reforms in Syria, and said, “No country is entitled to interfere in Syria’s internal affairs and no Muslim or non-Muslim, Arab or non-Arab and regional and trans-regional government has the right to meddle in the country’s affairs under the pretext of support for the Syrian people.”

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, 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 stirring unrests in Syria once again.

The US and its western and regional allies have long sought to topple Bashar al-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.