Washington is looking for some "excuse" to take military action against Damascus, Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said on Tuesday, a day after US President Donald Trump promised quick, forceful action in response to an alleged chemical attack by Syrian government forces.
"It seems the US government is seeking an excuse to [militarily] intervene in the country," Zarif told reporters as he began an official visit to Brazil, IRNA reported.
As at least one US guided-missile destroyer moved toward the Syrian coast, Trump told a meeting with military leaders and national security advisers that he would soon make a decision following the attack that allegedly occurred late on Saturday, Reuters reported. He said the United States has “a lot of options militarily” on Syria.
In addition, the US ambassador to the United Nations, Nikki Haley, said Monday that Washington “will respond” to the alleged gas attack in Douma, a rebel-held town in Eastern Ghouta, regardless of whether the UN Security Council acts or not.
Moscow and Damascus have dismissed the reports blaming the Syrian government, with Russia saying it has found no traces of a chemical attack in the Syrian town, RT reported.
Lifting Moral of Terrorists
Zarif said, "The Islamic Republic has a very clear stance on chemical weapons and condemns its use by any party and against any party."
Tel Aviv and Washington have at various junctures made attempts to "boost the morale of the terrorists" when they suffer defeat, the minister added, referring to missile strikes on a major airfield in central Syria on Monday that Moscow and Damascus have blamed on Israel.
Israel, which has struck Syrian army locations many times in the course of Syria's 7-year-old civil war, has neither confirmed nor denied mounting the raid. It rarely acknowledges individual strikes.
Continued Support
Ali Akbar Velayati, a foreign policy advisor to the Leader of Islamic Revolution, on Tuesday reiterated Iran's continued support for Syrian President Bashar al-Assad as well as the country's territorial integrity and sovereignty. The military achievements of the Syrian army, particularly in the besieged Eastern Ghouta, have "riled" the enemies and that is why they are making "false" accusations against the Arab state, he told IRNA in Damascus, where he was scheduled to attend an international conference on Palestine.
Implicating Syria
Alaeddin Boroujerdi, chairman of Majlis National Security and Foreign Policy Commission, believes that the new accusations are aimed at "implicating" the Syrian government.
"The Syrian government has the upper hand, and, based on political and military calculations, there is no point in using chemical weapons," ICANA quoted him as saying on Tuesday.
Syria, a signatory to the Chemical Weapons Convention, denies it possesses chemical weapons and has branded the use of such arms "immoral and unacceptable".
