Providing Terrorists In Syria With Weapons, Major Blunder: Deputy FM

Tehran, Dec 4, IRNA – Deputy foreign minister for Arab-African affairs said on Tuesday that Iran has from the outset of revolt in Syria warned against supplying weapons to the terrorists fighting the Syrian government and considered it a strategic mistake. Hossein Amir-Abdollahian made the remarks in a meeting with the visiting Italian Foreign Ministry's Director General for Political and Security Affairs, Sandro de Bernardin on Tuesday. Amir-Abdollahian said that the international community has finally reached the conclusion that the solution to the regional crises, Syria in particular, is not arming the terrorists, adding that Iran has from the beginning underlined that the Syrian nation and government need support by the international community in the fight against terrorism and extremism to go ahead with reform program. Amir-Abdollahian said that Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif’s visit to the neighboring states in the Persian Gulf indicates Iran advocates good neighborly ties with the regional states. De Bernardin, for his part, described Iran’s role in regional developments as positive and said that the two countries’ attitude towards fighting terrorism and extremism are identical. He further noted that the danger of extremism is not a threat to the Middle East alone; rather if the phenomenon is not controlled, it will engulf the other areas across the world. He noted that Italy has always been of the opinion that military solution will never bring peace and stability to Syria and diplomatic means should be used to end the humanitarian crisis and bloodshed in Syria./end