TEHRAN – In a high-profile meeting with Syrian President Bashar al Assad in Tehran on Monday, Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said Iran considers backing for Syria in the face of the grand coalition of the U.S., Europe, and their regional allies as support for the resistance movement and is proud of it.

“The Islamic Republic of Iran considers support for the Syrian government and people as support for the resistance movement and is proud of it from the bottom its heart,” Ayatollah Khamenei remarked.

The Leader said the mystery behind the victory of Syria over the U.S. and its regional mercenaries was the resistance of its president and its people.

Ayatollah Khamenei said Iran will stand beside the Syrian people like the past.

Pointing to Iran’s backing for Syria since the war began in the country in 2011, the Leader said, “Syria, through resistance and cooperation of people, withstood against the great coalition of the U.S., Europe and their allies in the region and emerge victorious” in this battle.

Ayatollah Khamenei calls Assad a “hero in the Arab world”The victory of the resistance movement has made the U.S. “angry” and that is why Washington is orchestrating new plots against the country, the Leader warned.
“The issue of buffer zone which Americans are seeking to create in Syria is among these dangerous plots which must be decisively rejected and resisted,” the Leader asserted.

Ayatollah Khamenei said one of the U.S. plans is to be actively present in Syria-Iraq border.

He added Iran and Syria are “strategic depths” of each other and the identity and the power of the resistance movement is dependent on this strategic connection and that is why that the enemies will not be able to implement their plots in the region.

Ayatollah Khamenei went on to say that the enemies made a wrong assumption about the Syrian war. “The enemies’ error was that they mistook Syria with some other Arab countries. In those countries, the people’s struggle was in line with resistance movement, and in fact uprising against the U.S. and its puppets”.

The Leader praised President Assad for his strong resistance against the enemies who tried hard to topple his government.

“Through the toughness that you showed, you have been turned into a hero in the Arab world, and the resistance movement found more power and reputation by you.”

For his part, President Assad, who visited Iran for the first time since the war began in his country eight years ago, thanked Iran for its unquestioned support for Syria in years of struggle against terrorists and their backers, saying, “The Syrian war was like the imposed eight-year war against Iran.”

Assad was referring to Saddam Hussein’s war against Iran in the 1980s.

The Syrian president said, “The Islamic Republic of Iran stood on our side in a sacrificing way and it is imperative to congratulate this victory to Your Excellency and all Iranians and thank them.”

Assad also said many countries were submissive to the United States and had the imagination that it is the U.S. which determines the destiny of the world but this thinking is vanishing through the resilience of “resistant nations”.

PA/PA