‘Be angry and die of anger’: Iran tells US after President Raeisi’s historic visit to Syria

Iran’s Foreign Ministry spokesman Nasser Kan’ani made the remarks in a tweet on Thursday after US State Department deputy spokesperson Vedant Patel claimed that the deepening Tehran-Damascus ties should be of great concern, not just to American allies and regional countries, but to the world more broadly.

Kan’ani said that it is natural for Washington to be infuriated because it has suffered a defeat in the region at the hands of the resistance front.

“The US has expressed concerns about the Iranian president’s visit to Syria and its results and described them as malign! Of course, the anger of that evil regime is natural as it has been defeated in Syria and the entire region by Iran and the Axis of Resistance, and it must end its aggressive presence in Syria,” he wrote.

“Be angry and die of this anger,” he added, repeating a famous quote by former Iranian Judiciary Chief Mohammad Beheshti, who was martyred in the 1981 bombing of the headquarters of the Islamic Republic Party by the terrorist Mujahedin-e-Khalq Organization (MKO).

Speaking on Wednesday, Patel alleged that Iran and Syria “have continued to partake in malign destabilizing activities, not just in their immediate countries, but also in the region.”

Washington, he said, has made clear to partners that it does not support others normalizing ties with Damascus.

The comments came on the same day that Raeisi, heading a high-ranking politico-economic delegation, started his visit to Syria upon an official invitation by his Syrian counterpart Bashar al-Assad.

The visit is the first by an Iranian president since the foreign-backed militancy gripped the Arab country in 2011. It focuses on boosting relations between Tehran and Damascus and reinforcing the Axis of Resistance.

The US and its allies invaded Syria in 2014 under the pretext of fighting Daesh. The Takfiri group came into being when Washington was running out of excuses to extend its meddling in West Asia or enlarge its scale.

Under former American president, Donald Trump, Washington, which has set up illegal outposts near major oil and gas fields in northeastern Syria, began looting Syria’s natural resources. American forces still continue their illegal presence in the Arab country, although Damascus and its allies defeated Daesh in 2017.

Unlike the US, Iran has maintained an advisory mission in Syria at the request of Damascus with the aim of helping the country vanquish the foreign-backed militants.