US, Israel major players in Syria crisis

Chairman of Iran’s Armed Forces Joint Chiefs of Staff Major General Hassan Firouzabadi says the United States and Israel are major players in the Syrian crisis.

“The United States and the Zionist regime [of Israel] play the main role in Syria unrest because Syria was calm but after the victory of the Egyptian revolution, the [global] arrogance made a new plan to give this occupying regime [of Israel] new breathing room, and they chose Syria for this purpose,” Firouzabadi said on Saturday.

The Iranian commander further noted that based on some accurate information, Syria is in the hands of the country’s army and popular forces and the Syrian government is in control of the borders.

“The number of terrorists in Syria, compared with the people and the popular army of this country, is not high and they are weak. However, they have been provided with advanced weapons and shoot people from hiding places, and this is not a coherent and systematic move,” Firouzabadi pointed out.

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

A recent UN report revealed that militants, mostly extremist Salafists, have infiltrated Syria from 29 countries to fight against the Damascus government.

The Syrian government has repeatedly said that the chaos in the country is being orchestrated from abroad, and that a very large number of the militants operating in Syria are foreign nationals.