Iran’s Intelligence Minister has stated that Qasem Soleimani had proposed to Bashar Assad to go to Iran and command his forces from there, but Assad refused the offer. Previously, Amir Abdollahian, Deputy Foreign Minister, had also announced such news.
According to “FCN” report, Mahmoud Alavi, Iran’s Intelligence Minister, said in an interview with Al-Mayadeen website that Iran had proposed to Bashar Assad to come to the country and command his forces from there, but he refused.
According to Asr-e Iran report, Alavi said in this interview, which took place on Saturday, April 24 (in the Iranian calendar), that Qasem Soleimani, commander of the Quds Force, made this proposal to Assad on behalf of Iran. However, he did not specify the timing of the proposal.
According to Alavi, Syria’s president responded to Qasem Soleimani’s proposal by saying: “My family is no different from other Syrian families, and we will remain in Damascus.”
Previously, Hossein Amir-Abdollahian, Deputy Minister for Arab and North African Affairs at Iran’s Foreign Ministry, had also said: “Two years ago [in 2013], during a visit with Bashar Assad, we proposed that he send his family to Iran, but his response was that I will stay in the country until the last moment and my wife is responsible for looking after the families of martyrs and we will not leave the country.”
Iran’s Intelligence Minister also said in his interview with Al-Mayadeen that he considers the start of the Syrian war, or as he put it, the “conspiracy against Syria,” to be in 2006, when the Assad government supported Hezbollah of Lebanon in its war against Israel.
Mahmoud Alavi, while emphasizing Iran’s support for the Syrian regime, also said: “If Iran had not paid attention to fighting terrorism throughout Syria and Iraq, now it would be facing [terrorists] in its western provinces.”
On Saturday, Hassan Rouhani, Iran’s President, also made a similar statement on this matter: “If it were not for Iran, ISIS would have practically materialized and today we would be facing a terrorist state called ISIS instead of a terrorist group.”
In another part of his interview with Al-Mayadeen, Iran’s Intelligence Minister described the city of Raqqa, the self-proclaimed capital of the “Islamic State” group, as “one of the centers of anti-Iran activities” and stated that “all members of groups that were sent toward Iran in recent months to carry out terrorist operations have been killed or arrested.”
According to Alavi, some members of these groups intended to carry out sabotage operations during the elections for the Islamic Consultative Assembly and the Assembly of Experts in Iran (February 26 of last year), but at that time, according to him, a large workshop of theirs for making explosives was identified.
Iran’s Intelligence Minister once again emphasized that Iran will not reduce its support for its allies and said: “These allies today are stronger than any other time and are recording new victories every day.”
The Iranian government has always denied military presence in Syria and claims that military experts from this country in Syria only have an advisory role. So far, dozens of senior Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps commanders and recently several Iranian Army commandos have been killed in Syria.
Source: Deutsche Welle
