Velayati added that the only opposition fighters who will be allowed to attend the Astana meeting in Kazakhstan in mid-January will be those who ‘respect Syria’s territorial integrity and legitimate sovereignty.”
According to an additional article on the same subject by the Iranian Financial Tribune, Iran’s involvement in the Syrian conflict has only gone as far as providing “Syrian troops with advisory services.”
Following Assad’s rhetoric of characterizing the Syrian uprising as a western initiated foreign conspiracy aimed at toppling a legitimate government, Iranian media coverage fails to acknowledge that if it were not for the presence of officers of the Iranian Guard, as well as Shia militias sent into Syria from Iran and Lebanon, the brutal and corrupt Assad regime would have been toppled by the Syrian opposition long ago.
It is Assad himself who has disrespected and violated “Syria’s territorial integrity and legitimate sovereignty” by inviting foreign invaders into the country to assist him in quashing what should have remained a Syrian-Syrian dialogue as Velayati ironically also said on Saturday must now “be held without foreign interference.”
After bankrupting itself with its insane war being waged mainly against Syrian civilians, added to the destruction of the majority of the country’s infrastructure with the help of Russia, the Assad regime is in no position whatsoever to create a climate of peace when its military and security forces and thugs continue to extort money from Syrian citizens and bully and terrorize them with impunity.
The corruption that helped spark the revolution almost six years ago is not only still alive and well in Syria, it has flourished in the lawless atmosphere of financial instability and wanton death and destruction.
Velayati also stressed that ISIS and al-Nusra are terrorist groups that will have no part in the negotiations with total disregard for the fact that even as “ceasefires” are negotiated and lauded by the international community the terrorist regime continues to drop barrel bombs on civilian areas killing unarmed men, women and children while ignoring, and even worse, empowering, legitimate terrorist groups like ISIS to continue to flourish because it furthers Assad’s agenda.
The Iranian senior official further deemed his earlier meeting with al-Muallem ‘constructive’ and ‘positive’, adding “the visit of Syrian security-intelligence and foreign policy officials to Iran and bilateral cooperation between Iran and Syria as well as trilateral cooperation of Iran, Russia and Syria has gained further significance after the victory of Aleppo.”
For his part al-Muallem expressed “Syria’s appreciation for Iran’s support, affirming that Syrians will never forget it,” adding that the victory in Aleppo has led to the cessation of combat activities in Syria which should pave the way towards political dialogue.
Al-Muallem’s overly optimistic claim of a “cessation of combat activities” which he believes will “pave the way towards political dialogue” also belies the fact that Assad has never shown any real interest in engaging in a political dialogue with those who view his presidency as illegitimate after using it to destroy the country and murder and displace more than half of Syria’s legitimate citizens.
“We are happy about the victory of Aleppo,” Velayati said. “The victory of Syria and its allies in Aleppo is the greatest victory in the recent history of the whole region.”
The major flaw in Velayati’s assessment is that a victory for Assad and his allies is no “victory” for Syria… or the Syrian people. And history will tell a far different story when it records the misery that will surely continue to visit the lives of those living in Syria for as long as Assad’s allies continue to prop him up for their own selfish interests.
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