Syrian government welcomes Iran nuclear deal

Damascus welcomed the international community’s nuclear deal with Iran as a “historic agreement,” Syrian state media said Sunday

Iran agreed with the US and five other world powers to a temporary freeze of its nuclear program for six months in exchange for limited and gradual sanctions relief. Iran is a chief backer of President Bashar Assad’s government.

Opposition activists fear the deal will take international pressure off of Iran and embolden Syria’s government to use an even harder hand in the country’s three year old civil war.

The Sunday report from SANA, a mouthpiece for the views of the government of President Bashar Assad, quoted an unnamed Foreign Ministry official.

“Syria congratulates the Iranian brotherly people and their wise leadership on this historic achievement which reiterates Iran’s role in the stability and security of the region,” the source said, adding that the deal shows that “political solutions to the crises of the region are the best means to ensure the security and stability of the region, far from foreign intervention and threats to use force.”

The agreement “paves the way for international efforts to free the Middle East of all weapons of mass destruction,” especially after the deal reached to remove Syria’s chemical weapons, but “Israel remains the only obstacle preventing this objective from being achieved, because it is the only side that possesses nuclear weapons” and refuses International Atomic Energy Agency supervision, the source added.