The US-led anti-Islamic State (IS) coalition is “illegitimate”, said a top Iranian official visiting Syria Tuesday.
The US-led international coalition is “amputated and doesn’t have international legitimacy”, Secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council Ali Shamkhani said at a press conference Tuesday evening in the capital Damascus, Xinhua reported.
The official accused the countries that have joined the coalition of originally supporting the Islamist militant groups in Syria, referring to the Arab Gulf states, which initially backed the armed rebellion in Syria before finally deciding to join the US in its battle against the IS Sunni radical group that has violently seized large parts of Iraq and Syria.
“The US airstrikes (on Syria) are illogical and unacceptable,” he said, adding that Iran has opposed the coalition because it rejects intervention in the domestic affairs of others.
Shamkhani stressed that the coalition was a “ridiculous farce” and would not be effective or willing to place ground troops in the battlefield “because they had been defeated in Iraq and Afghanistan”.
The Iranian official stressed that his country will keep backing the Syrian government, saying that “the peoples are the ones who draw the future of their country and not the foreign forces”.
Shamkhani met earlier in the day with President Bashar al-Assad, during which the president stressed that confronting extremist Islamist views spread by militants is as important as fighting the armed Islamist groups, who have wreaked havoc and destroyed historic and cultural heritage, according to the official SANA news agency.
“Combating terrorism cannot be carried out by states that contributed to establishing terrorist organisations, provided them with logistic and material support, and spread terrorism around the world,” Assad said, criticising the Gulf Arab states.
The US and its allies have bombarded the bases of the IS group with airstrikes in several Syrian cities last Tuesday, killing tens of the militants, and destroying their encampments.
Damascus reported that it was informed beforehand about the attacks, while its officials stressed they would cooperate with any efforts that aim to eliminate the armed groups in Syria as long as they respect the sovereignty of the country.
–IANS