Iran Denies Supporting Assad’s Army in Syria War
Syrian troops celebrate as they take control of the village of Haydariyah, some seven kilometers outside the rebel-held city of Qusair, May 13, 2013. Image by Haaretz/AFP
Iran on Friday denied it has forces in Syria supporting President Bashar Assad’s army, one day after foreign backers of the Syrian leader’s rebel foes demanded Tehran withdraw its fighters from the country’s territory.
“The true enemies of Syria make up these accusations to provoke the people of this country,” Foreign Ministry spokesman Abbas Araqchi said, quoted by Iranian state television.
At a meeting in Jordan on Thursday, the Friends of Syria grouping of Western and Arab governments called for the immediate withdrawal from Syria of Iranian fighters and Lebanese Hezbollah guerrillas.
They were reported to be fighting alongside the Syrian army and militias loyal to Assad in the town of Qusair, near the border with Lebanon.
“In response to a question about accusations that Iranian and Hezbollah forces were present in Syria, Abbas Araqchi said Iranian forces have never been and are not present in Syria,” the state television report said.
Read more at Haaretz.com.
A message from our CEO & publisher Rachel Fishman Feddersen
I hope you appreciated this article. Before you move on, I wanted to ask you to support the Forward’s award-winning journalism during our High Holiday Monthly Donor Drive.
If you’ve turned to the Forward in the past 12 months to better understand the world around you, we hope you will support us with a gift now. Your support has a direct impact, giving us the resources we need to report from Israel and around the U.S., across college campuses, and wherever there is news of importance to American Jews.
Make a monthly or one-time gift and support Jewish journalism throughout 5785. The first six months of your monthly gift will be matched for twice the investment in independent Jewish journalism.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
