US Security Officers Stop Nicaraguan MPs’ Flight to Iran

US security forces at Miami airport prevented a delegation of Nicaraguan legislators from taking a trip to Iran to participate in the ‘Friends of Syria’ conference, Managua’s envoy to Tehran announced on Sunday.

“The US security officials at Miami airport have prevented the Nicaraguan MPs from traveling to Iran, and the delegation will arrive in Tehran with a delay,” Mario Antonio Barquero Baltadano said, addressing the representatives of over 30 countries participating in the second ‘Friends of Syria’ conference in Tehran on Sunday attended by the chairpersons of the national security and foreign policy commissions of the parliaments of those countries which have friendly relations with Syria.

“Therefore, our lawmakers will try to participate in the Tehran conference this evening,” he added.

Baltadano underlined his country’s support for the political solution to the Syrian crisis, and said, “We have no doubt that the Syrian nation will show a massive turnout in the election and the people’s high turnout in election will show the power of the people and democracy in the country.”

The presidential election in Syria is due to be held on June 3 despite a surge of West-backed terror attacks mostly against civilian targets by armed militants as well as opposition publicity campaigns to undermine the landmark election process.

Meanwhile, Syrian expatriates casted their votes at the country’s embassies and missions abroad, showing a massive turnout that even shocked the western media.

Voting for the Syrian expatriates in neighboring Lebanon was extended for an additional day due to an unprecedented turnout.

There are three candidates in Syria’s presidential election, namely incumbent President Bashar al-Assad and Maher Abdel Hafiz Hajjar and Hassan Abdallah al-Nuri.

According to the Syria’s Interior Ministry officials, nearly 16 million Syrians are eligible to vote in the upcoming presidential poll.

Damascus has insisted that it would hold the presidential poll despite the foreign-backed militancy, which has, according to some sources, killed over 150,000 people and displaced millions of others since it started.

The conflict in Syria started in March 2011, when sporadic pro-reform protests turned into a massive insurgency following the intervention of western and regional states.

The unrest, which took in terrorist groups from across Europe, the Middle-East and North Africa, has transpired as one of the bloodiest conflicts in recent history.

As the foreign-backed insurgency in Syria continues without an end in sight, the US government has boosted its political and military support to Takfiri extremists.

Washington has remained indifferent to warnings by Russia and other world powers about the consequences of arming militant groups and has vowed to increase attempts to train and supply them with more weapons.