Iranian officials' response to Syria sanctions: Promise more economic aid to Assad
With the announcement of the implementation of new and strict US sanctions against the Syrian government, Iran's First Vice President on Thursday called for the implementation of Iran's economic agreements with Syria "as soon as possible" and said that the Islamic Republic would "spare no steps" to reduce pressure on Syria.
According to the Iranian Broadcasting Agency, Eshaq Jahangiri made this statement on Thursday, June 10, in a phone call with Hussein Arnous, the new Prime Minister of Syria.
He said: "We must follow up on bilateral agreements in the Joint Commission for Economic Cooperation and the Strategic Committee for International Relations so that these agreements can be implemented as soon as possible," and addressed the "international community" and said that it "must provide serious support to the people of this country, especially in the field of providing medicine and basic goods."
The news of the Iranian government's decision to provide more economic aid to the Bashar al-Assad government in Syria comes at a time when Heshmatollah Falahatpisheh, a member of the National Security and Foreign Policy Commission of the Majlis, made an unprecedented statement in May of this year that the Islamic Republic has spent about "30 billion dollars" in Syria over the past decade.
In the past few years, in every protest movement that has taken place in Iran, one of the issues that people protest in the streets has been money that has been spent in other countries, including Syria, instead of the country itself.
On Thursday, Abbas Mousavi, spokesman for the Islamic Republic's Ministry of Foreign Affairs, also reacted to the enactment and implementation of the "Caesar" sanctions law against Syria, saying: "Iran does not give any credence to such cruel and unilateral sanctions."
He also announced that the Islamic Republic will continue "its economic cooperation" with Syria, as in the past, and will "strengthen its economic relations with Syria, despite these sanctions."
The aim of the new US sanctions, which took effect on June 18, is to prevent Damascus and its allies from benefiting financially from military victories and expanding control over that country.
The US and the European Union have already imposed various sanctions on the central government of Syria, but Washington wants to extend the sanctions to individuals, legal entities, and companies that may do business with the Damascus government.
The new sanctions are named "Caesar's Law" after the pseudonym of a photographer who in 2014 took thousands of photographs of "massive torture and killings" in the prisons of the Bashar al-Assad regime out of the country.
In addition to the Assad government, sanctions can also be used by the US government against its main supporters, Tehran, Moscow, and Lebanon's Hezbollah.
But the consequences of the "Caesar or Caesar Act" are not limited to them, and could also affect China and some other countries in the region, including Jordan, Iraq, Lebanon, and those that intend to expand relations with Damascus.
Habib Hosseinifard, a political analyst, wrote in an article for Radio Farda that these sanctions are considered the highest level of sanctions and the closest to a military war, and will confront the Syrian government with much more problems than the current situation. And there is a high probability that within the framework of these changes and developments, beyond Assad's departure or stay or the division of power to any extent, the equations will still not go in favor of Iran's continued presence and influence in Syria.
Source: Radio Farda
