Khamenei: Iran strongly opposes any foreign intervention in Syria

Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has said Iran strongly opposes any foreign intervention in Syria's conflict, during a meeting with visiting Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan in Mashhad.

|
Office of the Iranian Supreme Leader/AP
Iranian supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei (r.) meets with Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, in the northwestern city of Mashhad, Iran, Thursday.

Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has said Iran strongly opposes any foreign intervention in Syria's conflict and will defend Damascus so it can continue "resistance" against Israel, his official website reported on Thursday.

Khamenei, the Islamic Republic's highest authority, made the comments during a meeting with visiting Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan in Mashhad.

The Islamic Republic supported popular uprisings in Egypt, Libya and Yemen last year but has steadfastly supported Syrian President Bashar al-Assad against a year-old uprising. Assad is a rare ally for Iran in an Arab world largely suspicious of Iranian ambitions for greater regional clout.

In contrast, Erdogan has urged Assad to step down and has allowed opposition groups to meet in Istanbul.

"Iran will defend Syria because it supports its policy of resistance against the Zionist regime (Israel), and is strongly opposed to any interference by foreign forces in Syria's internal affairs," Khamenei was quoted as saying.

He voiced support for reforms announced by Assad and opposed "any plan created by Americans for the Syrian issue."

"America accepts no nation as an independent one ... and this should be taken into consideration in the decision-making of Islamic countries."

Syria has harboured Palestinian militants hostile to the Jewish state and long seen itself as a front-line Arab opponent of Israel, but the two countries have not fought since a ceasefire that ended the 1973 Arab-Israeli war. Israel captured Syria's Golan Heights in a 1967 war.

On Wednesday, Iranian Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi said Tehran backed a U.N.-sponsored peace plan for Syria that calls for the withdrawal from rebellious cities of government troops but does not demand the removal of Assad.

The Iranian authorities have tempered their rhetoric on Syria since anti-government demonstrations began in Damascus in March last year. At first, they wholeheartedly supported Assad but have increasingly encouraged him to pursue social and political reforms to take account of popular grievances.

Earlier in the day Erdogan met Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to discuss Iran's nuclear program, which the West suspects is being used to covertly develop atomic weapons. Iran has repeatedly denied such accusations.

"The Turkish government and nation have always clearly supported Iran's nuclear program and will seriously follow the same policy in the future," Iranian state television quoted Erdogan as saying.

Erdogan's visit to Iran touched on economic cooperation. Trade between the two states rocketed to $16 billion last year.

Iran is keen to build further trade relations to minimise tough new sanctions imposed by the United States and European Union on its financial and oil sectors to try to get Tehran to shelve sensitive nuclear activity.

Turkish officials hope trade can reach $35 billion by 2015 and the two countries have agreed to appoint mutual special envoys to study how to expand relations.

Such a policy could imperil Turkey's relations with the West. Last week Ankara failed to secure an exemption from Washington on its purchase of Iranian crude oil. 

You've read  of  free articles. Subscribe to continue.
Real news can be honest, hopeful, credible, constructive.
What is the Monitor difference? Tackling the tough headlines – with humanity. Listening to sources – with respect. Seeing the story that others are missing by reporting what so often gets overlooked: the values that connect us. That’s Monitor reporting – news that changes how you see the world.

Dear Reader,

About a year ago, I happened upon this statement about the Monitor in the Harvard Business Review – under the charming heading of “do things that don’t interest you”:

“Many things that end up” being meaningful, writes social scientist Joseph Grenny, “have come from conference workshops, articles, or online videos that began as a chore and ended with an insight. My work in Kenya, for example, was heavily influenced by a Christian Science Monitor article I had forced myself to read 10 years earlier. Sometimes, we call things ‘boring’ simply because they lie outside the box we are currently in.”

If you were to come up with a punchline to a joke about the Monitor, that would probably be it. We’re seen as being global, fair, insightful, and perhaps a bit too earnest. We’re the bran muffin of journalism.

But you know what? We change lives. And I’m going to argue that we change lives precisely because we force open that too-small box that most human beings think they live in.

The Monitor is a peculiar little publication that’s hard for the world to figure out. We’re run by a church, but we’re not only for church members and we’re not about converting people. We’re known as being fair even as the world becomes as polarized as at any time since the newspaper’s founding in 1908.

We have a mission beyond circulation, we want to bridge divides. We’re about kicking down the door of thought everywhere and saying, “You are bigger and more capable than you realize. And we can prove it.”

If you’re looking for bran muffin journalism, you can subscribe to the Monitor for $15. You’ll get the Monitor Weekly magazine, the Monitor Daily email, and unlimited access to CSMonitor.com.

QR Code to Khamenei: Iran strongly opposes any foreign intervention in Syria
Read this article in
https://www.csmonitor.com/World/Latest-News-Wires/2012/0329/Khamenei-Iran-strongly-opposes-any-foreign-intervention-in-Syria
QR Code to Subscription page
Start your subscription today
https://www.csmonitor.com/subscribe