US-led strikes on Syria aimed at making up for terrorists’ defeats: Velayati
A senior aide to the Leader of the Islamic Revolution says the US-led strikes against Syria were aimed at making up for recent terrorists’ defeats in the Arab country.
“What the Americans conducted under the pretext of a chemical attack was an excuse to make up for recent terrorists’ defeats in Syria,” Ali Akbar Velayati, a senior adviser to Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei on international affairs, told reporters on Sunday.
The United States, Britain and France launched missile strikes against multiple places in Syria early Saturday following US President Donald Trump’s order despite international warnings against further escalation of the situation in the Arab country and across the Middle East. Syria said it intercepted most of the missiles.
The US-led military coalition has accused the Syrian government of having allegedly attacked the militant-held town of Douma in the Eastern Ghouta region on April 7 and claimed that the Saturday airstrikes were aimed at deterring Syria’s further use of chemical weapons.
This is while Syria turned over its entire chemical stockpile under a deal negotiated by Russia and the United States back in 2013.
Velayati further condemned the US measures in Syria, stressing that such moves would bear no fruit.
“The Syrian government and nation can defend their territorial integrity stronger than the past and this is the stance of the Islamic Republic of Iran,” the top Iranian official said.
Velayati emphasized that claims about the use of chemical weapons in Syria were “lies,” noting that an Iranian delegation, during a recent visit to the Eastern Ghouta, made sure that no such arms were used in this region.
“The US and its allies conducted the strikes [against Syria] before the announcement of the results of investigations into the use of chemical weapons, because they knew that the results would reject their claims,” he said.
The Iranian official added that Syria is currently very strong and the US, Britain and France would never achieve their “aggressive” objectives.
Velayati on Wednesday visited Syria’s Eastern Ghouta and secret underground tunnels used by Takfiri terrorists in the fully-liberated region near the capital Damascus. He also met with military commanders there.
He reaffirmed Iran’s support for Syria and the nation’s resistance against terrorists, underlining the necessity of further expansion of bilateral ties to counter the threats of the US, Israel and their regional stooges.
Inspectors from the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW), arrived in Damascus on Saturday at the request of the Syrian government to determine whether chemicals were used in Douma; an excuse used by the US and its allies to bomb the Arab country before any investigation.
On April 10, Velayati said the Israeli regime’s recent attack on an air base in the Syrian province of Homs would not go unanswered.
“Definitely, this crime will not remain without a response,” he said upon his arrival in the Syrian capital.
Two Israeli F-15 warplanes carried out strikes from Lebanese air space on T-4 air base in Homs on Sunday that killed and wounded several people. Syrian air defense systems shot down five out of eight missiles fired.
