TEHRAN – Secretary of Iran's Supreme National Security Council Ali Shamkhani said on Monday that Iran will continue its advisory role in Syria as long as all terrorist groups are annihilated, IRNA reported.

Shamkhani said Iran’s role in Syria is at the official request of the legal government in Damascus, emphasizing that allegations by the Zionist regime and other countries would not affect Tehran’s decisions in pursuit of its national interests and the security in the region.

Iran has been providing the Syrian government with advisory assistance in its fight against foreign-backed militant groups, including Daesh (ISIS). Last month, Major General Qassem Soleimani, the commander of Iran's Quds Force, declared the end of Daesh.

Pointing to the defeat of Daesh and its regional and international sponsors, Shamkhani said the development has created a new opportunity for cooperation among regional countries in fighting terrorism.

The former defense minister added there will be no role anymore for Western countries to play in the Middle East.

“Media campaigns [against Iran] cannot cover the ugly faces of those blood-thirsty butchers who have sacrificed thousands of innocent and defenseless Yemeni women, children and elderly people for their inhumane desires and goals,” Iran’s security official notes.The top security official also condemned the United States for selling highly sophisticated weapons including missiles to Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE), saying the two countries use those weapons to commit atrocities against the Yemeni people.

“Media campaigns [against Iran] cannot cover the ugly faces of those blood-thirsty butchers who have sacrificed thousands of innocent and defenseless Yemeni women, children and elderly people for their inhumane desires and goals,” the official said.

He was referring to the recent allegations against Iran made by U.S. Ambassador to UN Nikki Haley, who said Tehran has been arming the Houthis in Yemen.

On Thursday, Haley presented the debris of a missile at a military base in Washington in which she claimed it was made by Iran and used on November 4 by the Houthis to target an airport near Riyadh.

Ever since, Haley’s claims has been dismissed and condemned, ad infinitum, by Iranian officials, who said Washington is using “alternative facts” to cover up its complicity in war crimes in Yemen.

Shamkhani said the U.S. diplomat’s remarks were “weak”, “ridiculous” and lacked “technical evidence”.

Elsewhere in his remarks, the official also condemned Washington’s decision to recognize al-Quds (Jerusalem) as the capital of Israel, saying the Zionist regime and the U.S. made a terrible blunder that once again awakened the Muslim world and led to unity among Muslims.

“This would accelerate the Zionist regime’s decline,” he said.

He stressed that al-Quds is the eternal capital of Palestine and said the Palestinian issue has been the main issue of the Muslim nations which are united to confront the “child-killer Zionist regime.”

MH/PA