Dayr al-Zawr siege relief ‘important victory’: Iran FM

EghtesadOnline: Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif says the Syrian army's breaking of a years-long siege by Daesh Takfiri group of the eastern city of Dayr al-Zawr is an "important victory" against extremist and terrorist groups.

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06 September 2017

Zarif made the remarks in an interview with Lebanon-based Arabic-language al-Mayadeen news network published on Tuesday.

According to PressTV, he once again voiced his objection to the settlement of the Syrian crisis through merely military approaches, saying, “The people and resistance are achieving victory in Syria and we will grow farther from a military solution with the defeat of Daesh.”

Zarif also reiterated that the fate of the Syrians is in their own hands. “We should not dictate to the Syrian people what they should do. We have resisted against extremism and we must facilitate from now on the path of dialogue among different popular groups in Syria,” the Iranian foreign minister added.

Since the outset of the Syrian crisis, Iran has sought to help the Arab country’s people fight against extremism through political channels, he said.

Zarif pointed to a new round of Syria peace talks in the Kazakhstan’s capital of Astana and described the initiative as the “most successful diplomatic move” adopted after the beginning of the Syrian crisis.

The next round of negotiations between representatives from the Syrian government and foreign-sponsored armed opposition besides delegates from Iran, Russia, and Turkey as mediators is scheduled to be held on September 14-15 in Astana.

Astana has hosted five rounds of peace talks for Syria since January. The negotiations are aimed at bringing an end to the foreign-backed militancy in the violence-battered Arab country, which began in March 2011.

Successive victories against terrorists herald bright future

Meanwhile, Secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council (SNSC) Ali Shamkhani said the recent victories against terrorists in Iraq and Syria herald a bright and secure future.

“Successive victories against Takfiri terrorism in Syria and Iraq and the liberation of important and strategic regions herald a bright, secure and stable future in the region,” Shamkhani said in a message to Major General Ali Mamlouk, the head of Syria’s National Security Bureau, on Tuesday.

He offered his congratulations to the Syrian nation, army and government for breaking the siege of Dayr al-Zawr and said Syria’s President Bashar al-Assad and resistance and popular forces played an important and leading role in this victory.

Syrian army forces, backed by allied fighters from popular defense groups, reached Dayr al-Zawr on Tuesday and broke a nearly three-year siege imposed by Daesh terrorists on pro-government areas there.

Syria’s state-run television network reported that army and allied forces had advanced on the Brigade 137 base front on the western outskirts of the city, located 450 kilometers (280 miles) northeast of the capital Damascus on the shores of the Euphrates River.

The move effectively breached the siege that Daesh militants had laid since January 2015.

The SNSC secretary also said the full liberation of the strategic Syrian cities of Aleppo and Dayr al-Zawr and the Iraqi cities of Mosul and Tal Afar and the imminent liberation of all cities and villages would lead to full defeat of Daesh terrorists and their supporters.

“Active, real and close cooperation among Iran, Syria, Iraq and Russia along with Lebanese Hezbollah [resistance movement] has led to broad achievements in the fight against Daesh and terrorism and neutralized foreign plots against regional countries,” Shamkhani said.

He warned that foreign countries are pursuing such plots with the purpose of causing instability and insecurity in regional states.

The Iranian official emphasized that the Islamic Republic would continue with its constructive efforts to help civilians hurt by terrorism and reconstruct the liberated areas and to offer advisory military assistance.

In a meeting with Russia's special envoy on Syria, Alexander Lavrentiev, earlier in the day, Shamkhani said strategic cooperation among Iran, Syria, Russia and the resistance front in the fight against terrorism is bearing fruit amid fresh political and military advances by the Syrian government.

“The valuable results of the strategic cooperation among Iran, Syria, Russia and the resistance front in the genuine fight against terrorism are constantly emerging in the political spheres and battlefields,” the SNSC secretary said.

He hailed the coalition’s great achievements in fighting terrorism and breaking a siege imposed by Daesh Takfiri terrorists on Dayr al-Zawr and urged all countries to respect Syria’s national sovereignty.