Iran’s Zarif arrives in Damascus for talks with Syrian leadership
Foreign minister expected to meet with Assad as well as Syrian counterpart Walid Muallem, as regime prepares for Idlib offensive
Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif arrived in Damascus on Monday for talks on the latest developments in the country, Iranian news agencies reported.
Zarif will meet with Syrian top leadership, including his counterpart Walid Muallem, President Bashar Assad and Prime Minister Imad Khamis.
Zarif’s visit to Syria follows that of Iranian Defense Minister Amir Hatami last week, and comes ahead of a planned meeting in Tehran this week of the presidents of Iran, Russia and Turkey to discuss ending the Syrian civil war.
During Hatami’s visit, Iran and Syria signed a defense cooperation agreement that will see Tehran continue to send so-called military advisers to the country, even as world powers push for Iranian forces to leave Syria.
During his visit on August 26, Hatami hailed Syria and Iran’s strong ties and pledged to play a role in the war-torn country’s reconstruction.
ظریف وارد دمشق شد
«محمدجواد ظریف» وزیر امور خارجه کشورمان به منظور گفتگو و تبادل نظر با مقامات سوری وارد دمشق شد pic.twitter.com/g0Mci2lNB2
— باشگاه خبرنگاران جوان | YJC (@yjc___agency) September 3, 2018
Tehran has provided steady political, financial and military backing to Assad as he has crushed a seven-year uprising.
“Syria is in a very, very important juncture. It is passing through the critical stage and it is entering the very important stage of reconstruction,” Hatami said, in comments carried by Iranian state broadcaster IRIB.
He said it was agreed with Syria that Iran would have “presence, participation and assistance” in reconstruction “and no third party will be influential in this issue.”
The two countries have had strong ties for years. Iran has dispatched military forces to Syria but insists they are advisers, not fighters. Iran-backed militias, including the powerful Lebanese Hezbollah movement, have also backed Assad’s troops in fighting on Syrian soil.
Israel has expressed concerns Iran is entrenching itself militarily in neighboring Syria. Israeli jets have carried out dozens of airstrikes on Iranian army installations in the war-torn country in recent months. Jerusalem has also been lobbying the US and Russia to seek a full withdrawal of Iranian troops from the country.
On Wednesday, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed to continue hitting Iranian forces in Syria to keep them from gaining a foothold in Syria.
Zarif responded by calling Netanyahu “shameless.”
Iran, a country without nuclear weapons, is threatened with atomic annihilation by a warmonger standing next to an actual nuclear weapons factory. Beyond shameless in the gall. pic.twitter.com/MBoFac8Bvv
— Javad Zarif (@JZarif) August 29, 2018
With help from Iranian militias and Russian warplanes, Assad has recaptured around two-thirds of the country and is now eyeing the northwest province of Idlib.
A major regime assault on the province, the last major rebel-held bastion, is expected soon.
Last week Zarif met with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan to discuss Syria.
Erdogan is expected to meet with Iranian President Hassan Rouhani and Russia’s Vladimir Putin in Iran on September 7 when they hold their third summit meeting on Syria.
Since it erupted in 2011, Syria’s war has cost it approximately $388 billion, according to the United Nations’ Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia (ESCWA).
In July Assad said reconstruction was his “top priority” in Syria, where at least 350,000 people have been killed, though some estimates are much higher, and many millions were forced to flee their homes.
World powers who long called for Assad’s ouster insist reconstruction aid should only come with political transition, but fellow regime ally Russia is pressing them to provide support.
