Iran told the US to withdraw its forces from Syria and cease operations there because Washington’s presence was seen illegal by the local government.
Ali Akbar Velayati, the top foreign policy advisor to the Leader of Islamic Revolution, defended Iran’s presence in Syria, saying Iran was acting on behalf of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, whose armed forces have resisted an insurgency since 2011.
Iran has deployed military advisors and supported militias fighting alongside the Syrian army with support from Russia, which has also questioned the US role in the war-torn country.
“Iran is in Syria legitimately and based on the invitation of the Syrian government. Those who have to leave Syria are the ones who have not been permitted by the Syrian government,” Velayati said on the sidelines of a conference at the Islamic Azad University in Tehran on Wednesday, according to Mehr News Agency, as cited by Newsweek.
Velayati’s remarks came shortly after US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said he was “quite concerned” about an incident last Saturday in which Israel claimed an Iranian drone crossed into airspace over Israeli-occupied territories. Israel responded by downing the device and conducting air raids on pro-Syrian government positions near Damascus. Syria fired back, downing one Israeli F-16 with anti-aircraft weapons. The administration of US President Donald Trump has closely aligned itself with Israel and has supported its calls to contain and isolate Iran's growing influence across the Middle East.
"I think this again illustrates why Iran's presence in Syria is only destabilizing to the region. We think Iran needs to withdraw its military, its militia from Syria and allow the hope for the peace process to take hold in Geneva," Tillerson contended on Wednesday during a conference with his Jordanian counterpart in Amman.
Both the US and Iran have supported campaigns against the self-styled Islamic State militant group in Iraq and Syria, but tensions have spiked since the group was declared defeated in the both countries.
The US has said it would stay even after IS was defeated to prevent a resurgence and potentially to see a political transition, essentially meaning Assad's departure from power. Trump has accused Iran of supporting terrorism and developing ballistic missiles that threatened regional security. For this, he decertified and has threatened to scrap a 2015 nuclear deal, a move that was panned by Iran and the deal's other signatories, which included China, France, Germany and the UK.
Tehran says its missile development is only meant to build up a conventional deterrent in the face of hostile threats and that its presence in the region is aimed at reinforcing campaigns by its allies to fight off terror groups.
