Iran, Syria fighting on same front to restore regional stability: Defense minister

Iran’s defense minister says the Iranian and Syrian peoples are fighting on the same front to defeat terrorism and return calm and security to the region.

Brigadier General Hossein Dehqan made the remark during a Tuesday meeting with Chief of Staff of the Syrian Armed Forces General Ali Abdullah Ayoub, who is in Tehran at the head of a defense delegation.

“The evil phenomenon of terrorism, which is today active in Iraq and Syria, is an international threat, which will endanger the world if not contained and eliminated,” Dehqan said.

He also pointed to a US missile attack against a Syrian airbase in April and said any invasive act against Syria would worsen the current conflict in the Arab country.

“By attempting to weaken the anti-terror resistance front, the hegemonic system is trying to guarantee the safety of the Zionist regime [of Israel] and to rebuild and reinforce the morale of the terrorists and justify its illegitimate presence... in the region,” Dehqan said.

The Iranian defense chief also censured Saudi Arabia’s activities in supporting the terrorists and serving the American and Israeli agendas. He said those activities had escalated tensions in the region.

The Syrian official, for his part, said Syria’s victories in its resistance against the terrorists over the course of the now six-year conflict in the Arab country were owed to the Islamic Republic’s support.

Iran has been lending military advisory support to Iraq and Syria in the face of foreign-backed Takfiri terrorists.

“We believe that the US is collaborating with the Zionist regime and the terrorist groups of Daesh and al-Nusra to effect geopolitical change in the region... and disintegrate Muslim countries,” he added.

Israel provides medical and other types of support to the anti-Damascus Takfiri terrorists. The Tel Aviv regime also often conducts military strikes against targets in Syria.

“The Syrian nation and Armed Forces will continue fighting until the country’s full liberation from occupation by terrorists,” Ayoub said.