Syria Paying Price for Supporting Palestine: Deputy FM

A Syrian deputy foreign minister described Damascus’ support for Palestine as the main reason behind the intense war that has been waged against his country.

In an interview with Tasnim, Faisal Mekdad reaffirmed Syria’s commitment to supporting Palestine, saying an Israeli aggression against one of them is tantamount to an attack on the other.

If Syria had not thrown its weight behind Palestine and had not supported the right of Palestinian refugees to return home and the establishment of an independent Palestinian government with al-Quds as its capital, it would have not become the target of such heavy attacks in recent years, Mekdad added.

Israel and terrorism are identical, the Syrian diplomat deplored, saying any plot against Palestine is in fact a plot against Syria.

Whenever the Zionist regime of Israel fails to harm Syria via its proxies and mercenaries, it resorts to direct military engagement in Syria, he added.

Paying tribute to the Palestinians martyred in the recent Israeli violence in Gaza and to the Syrian martyrs of the war against terrorism, Mekdad said Syria, which is overcoming the crisis, does not back off from supporting Palestine.

Syria was gripped by civil war in 2011 and various foreign-backed terrorist groups, including Daesh (also known as ISIS or ISIL), poured to the Arab country to topple the Damascus government.

The war has reportedly claimed the lives of over 470,000 people, injured 1.9 million others, and displaced nearly half of the country’s pre-war population of about 23 million within or beyond its borders.