Zarif admits Iran is playing influential role in Syria war

Iranian foreign minister Mohammad Javad Zarif was asked during a recent interview with the Swiss daily Neue Zuericher Zeitung about Iran’s support for Hezbollah Lebanon and the latter’s “assistance” to the Syrian government in its military campaign against the opposition militants. His answer was: “Tehran is fully prepared to use its influence to encourage all foreign fighters to withdraw from Syria.”

This is a tacit acknowledgement that the Iranian government does have the power to order Hezbollah Lebanon and other pro-regime forces, like the Iraqi Shia militias fighting alongside the Assad regime forces, to withdraw from Syria. Yet, only a couple of days before, the foreign minister, speaking at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, had claimed that “Hezbollah has made its own decision” about going to Syria and that Iran had no role in that.

In the interview, published on 27 January 2014, Zarif again denied that Iran had any military presence in Syria and claimed that his government had only sent “some advisors to help the Syrian government.” Never mind all the evidence to the contrary, including pictures and video footage of members of Sepah Pasdaran fighting in Syria.

Source: http://en.mehrnews.com/detail/News/101816

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