Assad: Fighting Takfirism as important as fighting ISIL

TEHRAN, Oct. 01 (MNA) – Secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council has met with Bashar al-Assad in his round of trips to Syria and Lebanon. Ali Shamkhani was received by Syrian president Bashar al-Assad Tuesday evening after his visit to Lebanon’s Seyed Hassan Nasrallah, Syrian state news agency (SANA) was quoted by Mehr News. Bashar al-Assad believed that fighting Takfirist ideology spreading terrorism and which had been supported by some countries in the region was as important as fighting ISIL terrorists actively engaged in destroying nations’ historical heritage and civilization in the region. He also discredited the idea of fighting with terrorism by those countries supported and helped establish terrorist groups, and provided logistical support for them to create a worldwide threat as ‘ludicrously impossible.’ SANA also reported that Shamkhani and Assad discussed “cordial bilateral ties and the ways to continue the current strategic relations between the two brother and friend countries, which provided a base to secure their interests and also interests of all countries in the region, and the role of these cordial ties in facing challenges especially coming out of spread of dangerous Takfirist terrorism.” Both sides believed that Takfirist ideology threatened all countries in the region and beyond. They also emphasized that fighting terrorism should abide by international law, and it needed international cooperation by countries fighting in the frontline with terrorism, and also a wise avoidance of double standards still exploited by the west and especially the US to achieve their own specific objectives which Assad and Shamkhani believed was not to the interests of the countries of the region. Shamkhani, the Leader’s representative in the Supreme National Security Council reiterated Iran’s official policy of supporting Syria to help the country in fighting terrorism and opposing any action which would jeopardize Syrian territorial integrity and sovereignty.