Tehran warns US of swift response to any attack on bases in Syria

March 26, 2023 - 0:28

TERAN - Iran warned on Saturday that it will give a quick response to “any pretext” for an attack on its bases inside Syria established at the request of the Damascus government to fight terrorism.

Keyvan Khosravi, spokesman for Iran's Supreme National Security Council (SNSC), made the warning after U.S. officials claimed that Iran has been involved in attacks on U.S. bases inside Syria.

According to Iran's Arabic-language Al-Alam TV, more than 20 rockets were reportedly fired on Saturday against two illegal bases belonging to American occupation forces in eastern Syria.

The television specified the targets as American outposts based near the al-Omar oilfield and the Koniko gas field in Syria's Dayr al-Zawr Province.

The attacks came in response to a strike carried out by U.S. forces against a facility in northeast Syria, following a drone attack on Thursday that killed a U.S. contractor and injured 6 other Americans.

U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said, that at President Joe Biden's direction, he had ordered the "precision air strikes... in eastern Syria against facilities used by groups affiliated with Iran's Islamic Revolution Guards Corps."

Khosravi said the U.S. is trying to make accusations against Iran by pursuing a blame game policy and evading the consequences of its illegal occupation of part of the Syrian territory.

Such claims are not true, he added.

"Washington cannot attribute the natural and legal confrontation of the occupied countries with the U.S. military forces to other countries by creating artificial crises and lying," the Iranian security official emphasized, Press TV reported.

The security spokesperson went on to say that Iran has suffered huge costs in the fight against terrorism and in establishing security in Syria, adding his country "opposes and counters any action that threatens stability of this country."

The spokesman said the U.S. has played a role in creating and supporting the Daesh terrorist group as a proxy means to pursue its own political objectives in Syria and Iraq.

"Over the past two days, American helicopters have carried out several sorties with the aim of increasing instability in Syria and transferred Daesh terrorists in the territory of this country," Khosravi said, emphasizing that the U.S. must be held accountable for such moves.

Iran maintains an advisory mission in Syria at the request of Damascus with the aim of helping the war-torn country get rid of the foreign-backed militants, who have been fighting against the Syrian government since 2011.

In 2017, Iran’s advisory assistance helped Syria defeat the Daesh terrorist group.

Lieutenant General Qassem Soleimani, who was assassinated in a U.S. airstrike near Baghdad International Airport in January 2020, played a key role in defeating Daesh.