Muallem: Syria still needs Iran’s support

Syrian Foreign Minister Walid al-Muallem underlined that Iran will continue to remain Syria’s ally forever.

Muallem’s remarks came after Saudi Arabia proposed a Syrian peace plan that would see an end to supports by Iran and Hezbollah for Syria.

‘The conditions proposed by some countries that Syria should abandon Hezbollah and Iran will never be accepted,’ the Arab media outlets quoted the Syrian foreign minister as saying on Wednesday.

In return, Saudi Arabia has vowed that it would end its support for the militants who seek to oust Syrian President Bashar Assad, the Arabic-language Al-Hayat newspaper reported.

The daily wrote that this would then pave the way for parliamentary and presidential elections under the UN supervision.

Muallem, meantime, reiterated that maintaining Syria’s sovereignty all over Syria, holding unconditional talks among the Syrian sides and holding referendum on any final agreement are among Syria’s accepted conditions for coming out of the ongoing crisis.
The Syrian Foreign Minister pointed to Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif’s updated peace plan for Syria, and said, ‘The Iranian foreign minister has vowed to discuss his peace plan with various sides and countries.’

Zarif put forward a four-point peace plan in his last week’s visits to regional capitals according to which Tehran seeks to help end the ongoing conflict gripping Syria.

Last Wednesday, Zarif and President Assad in a meeting in Damascus discussed different ways to establish peace in Syria, specially campaign against terrorist groups.

During the meeting on Wednesday, Zarif and Assad affirmed that all countries inside and outside the region have to realize that they are not safe from the threat posing from terrorism, urging them to exert genuine and serious efforts to combat this threat through coordinated efforts and adopting policies based on truths and severing their support for terrorist groups.

Zarif, for his part, stressed Iran’s determination to support the steadfastness of Syrian people and ease their suffering due to the fierce war waged against them.

In July and during his visit to Kuwait City, Zarif underlined that Tehran will strongly stand beside the regional countries in their fight against terrorism and extremism.

‘Iran and the regional countries are facing common threats that should be confronted through mutual cooperation,’ Zarif told reporters.

The Iranian foreign minister reiterated that the accusations lodged against Iran are not true, warning that such allegations are aimed at the failure of cooperation among the regional states.

‘Iran is standing beside the regional nations against the threat of extremism,’ Zarif said.