Syrians won’t hand over fate to outsiders: Iranian official

Iran’s Deputy Foreign Minister for Arab and African Affairs Hossein Amir-Abdullahian said on Tuesday that sending weapons to Syria and not helping to end the violence in this country amounts to state terrorism and extremism.

“The solution for Syria’s problems is strictly diplomatic and the people of this country will not allow others to make decisions for them from the outside,” Amir-Abdullahian added.

Amir-Abdullahian made the remarks after Syria’s foreign-backed opposition coalition, known as the Syrian National Coalition, chose a Syrian-born American citizen, Ghassan Hitto, as the prime minister of what it called an interim government.

In his first speech after being chosen by Syria’s opposition coalition, Hitto said in the Turkish city of Istanbul on Tuesday that there would be no dialog between the opposition and the government of President Bashar al-Assad.

Hours after Hitto was elected, militants fighting against the Syrian government fired chemical weapons into a village in the northern city of Aleppo. At least 25 people were killed and scores of others injured in the attack. Women and children are reported to be among the victims.

Syria has been experiencing unrest since March 2011. Many people, including large numbers of the Syrian army and security personnel, have been killed in the violence.

The Syrian government says the chaos is being orchestrated from outside the country, and that a very large number of the militants operating in the country are foreign nationals.

Several international human rights organizations have accused foreign-sponsored militants of committing war crimes in Syria.