TEHRAN - Hossein Amir Abdollahian, a senior foreign policy advisor to the Iranian parliament speaker, has said that Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Ali Khamenei had told Syrian President Bashar al-Assad in 2011, when the riots first broke out in Syria, that the Syrian people are Iran’s redline.

Amir Abdollahian said the message was relayed to Assad through IRGC Quds Force chief Qassem Soleimani.

In the message the Leader told the Syrian president that if he showed leniency toward the killing of the Syrian people then he “could not count” Iran’s help, Farheekhtegan quoted Amir Abdollahian as saying, citing an interview published by the Office for the Preservation and Publication of Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei’s Works.

“When the Syrian crisis started in 2011, it was among the first advices of the Leader of the Revolution to Mr. Bashar Assad, which was conveyed by General Soleimani, that the ‘people are our redline. Do not count on us if you become indifferent towards killing of the people’,” explained Amir Abdollahian who served as Iran’s point man for Arab affairs at the time.

Amir Abdollahian added, “The Leader of the Revolution did not just focus on strategic and major levels of the region. In fact, he was concerned about the people of Syria.”

NA/PA