Syria more resolute on terror fight after missile strikes: Assad
Syrian President Bashar al-Assad says the escalation of aggression against Syria will only boost the country’s resolve to uproot terrorism in all its forms.
Assad made the remarks in a meeting with Chairman of the Iranian Parliament’s Committee on National Security and Foreign Policy Alaeddin Boroujerdi in Damascus on Monday, a day after Syria announced that several of its military bases located in the provinces of Hama and Aleppo had come under missile fire.
Syria says that several of its military bases located in the provinces of Hama and Aleppo have come under missile fire.
According to Syria’s state news agency, “a new aggression with hostile missiles” happened at 10:30 pm local time, in which military positions in villages near the cities of Hama and Aleppo were targeted.
The Syrian president said hostile countries have shifted to a stage of direct aggression after the fiasco that befell their agents and proxies.
He added that the escalation of the aggression against Syria would “only increase the Syrians’ determination to eliminate terrorism in all its forms, and uphold their sovereignty and their right to shape their own future.”
He noted that the Middle East is going through a phase of redrawing the entire international map.
The Syrian president also stressed the importance of improving parliamentary relations and exchanging experiences between the two countries.
Syrian government forces on Monday started an intensified military operation against a militant-held enclave near Homs amid a push to regain control over all the remaining areas under their siege.
Takfiri militants have lost much of the territory they once held in Syria amid sweeping gains by government forces on the ground.
The US, Britain and France recently carried out a string of coordinated airstrikes against sites and research facilities near Damascus and Homs with the purported goal of paralyzing the Syrian government’s capability to produce chemicals.
Washington and its allies blamed the Syrian government for a suspected chemical weapons attack in the Damascus suburb town of Douma on April 7.
Syria has rejected the accusations of possessing chemicals. It surrendered its chemical stockpile in 2013 to a mission led by the OPCW and the UN.
US, allies failed in Syria: Iran MP
The senior Iranian lawmaker, for his part, said the project of the United States and its allies in Syria has been defeated.
Boroujerdi added that the failure of the recent US-led aggression showed the solidity of the resistance front and the success of its counter-terrorism efforts.
He emphasized that Iran would always remain staunch in its support for Syria, vowing to keep up efforts to find a political solution to the Syria crisis that would preserve the country’s national unity and territorial sovereignty.
During the meeting, the Syrian president and Iranian lawmaker reaffirmed the joint will of the two countries to continue to strengthen strategic relations, particularly between the two countries’ parliaments.
Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said on Saturday that military approaches would fail to resolve the Syrian crisis, stressing that military intervention of certain countries has only prolonged the sufferings of people in the war-stricken state.
Zarif was speaking at a joint news conference with his Russian and Turkish counterparts, Sergei Lavrov and Mevlut Cavusoglu respectively, in Moscow, where the three top diplomats, whose countries act as guarantors of the Syria ceasefire, discussed the latest developments in Syria.
At the end of their talks in Moscow, the three foreign ministers issued a statement reaffirming their strong commitment to Syria’s sovereignty, independence, unity and territorial integrity and vowing to strengthen trilateral coordination to find a sustainable solution to the ongoing crisis in the Arab country.
According to the statement, the ministers “agreed to increase joint efforts aimed at facilitating the achievement of a lasting political settlement in Syria envisaged by the UN Security Council Resolution 2254 and through full use of multi-level mechanisms of the Astana format.”
Iran MP, Syria FM discuss latest developments
The Iranian lawmaker also held talks with Syrian Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign and Expatriates Minister Walid al-Moallem about ways to further improve bilateral relations and the latest regional and international developments, particularly the US-led military attack and the recurring Israeli acts of aggression against Syria.
Boroujerdi said that the tripartite aggression was a blatant violation of international law and norms, adding that it had had adverse consequences on stability in the entire region.
