US backs Syria militants to shield Israel: Iran MP

A senior Iranian lawmaker says the US seeks to undermine the resistance front against Israel by supporting anti-Damascus militants.
Chairman of Majlis National Security and Foreign Policy Committee Alaeddin Boroujerdi made the remark in his opening speech to an international parliamentary meeting in Tehran on the ongoing crisis in Syria.
“The reality is that the US aims to break the resistance against the Zionist regime … and we see that practically an organized conspiracy has been formed against Syria,” Boroujerdi said, adding that the hostility against Syria is the result of Damascus’s decades-old history of resistance against Israel.
He said that Syria has proved over the years that it would not compromise its support for anti-Israel resistance.
Rejecting any foreign interference in Syria, the Iranian legislator added that like any other nation in the world, the Syrians themselves should determine their future through free elections.
Iran is hosting an international parliamentary conference to discuss the ongoing crisis in Syria.
The one-day meeting is attended by heads of parliamentary foreign policy committees from Russia, Algeria, Syria, Iraq and Lebanon. Representatives from the Cuban and Venezuelan embassies in Tehran are also scheduled to attend the meeting.
Syria has been the scene of deadly violence since March 2011. Over 130,000 people have reportedly been killed and millions displaced due to the turmoil.
According to reports, the Western powers and their regional allies — Qatar, Saudi Arabia and Turkey — are supporting the militants operating inside Syria.