The Iranian Ministry of Foreign Affairs announced today, Saturday, that “an employee at its embassy in the Syrian capital, Damascus, was killed after being injured in an attack on his car last Sunday.”
In a statement, the Iranian Foreign Ministry held “the transitional government in Syria responsible for identifying the perpetrators of the attack on its embassy employee and prosecuting them,” stressing that “it will seriously follow up on the employee’s killing through diplomatic and international channels.”
Earlier, Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi confirmed that “the Syrian army is finished and the Syrian defenses have collapsed.”
He said: “What happened in Syria comes within the framework of a huge project planned by America and Israel to eliminate any resistance against Israel,” expressing his concern about “Syria turning into a state of chaos.”
Araqchi said: “Tehran does not impose any decisions on the axis of resistance and does not seek to interfere in Syrian affairs,” stressing that “the decision to be there was at the invitation of Bashar al-Assad’s regime to combat armed groups.”
He explained that “it was the Syrian army that decided to withdraw from the armed factions, and Tehran did not take any action as an alternative to the Syrian army,” noting that “Iran has made efforts regarding the political process and reforms in Syria.”
Araqchi said: “The sanctions that America imposed on Syria years ago were one of the reasons for the collapse of the army, after the country and its economy were completely exhausted with the inability of the government in Damascus to circumvent these sanctions, confront them, and resist them through its capabilities.”
Araqchi denied “providing military assistance to Bashar al-Assad in recent days, even after the army retreated from the armed factions.”
In a related context, the Iranian ambassador to Lebanon said, “The United States stipulated that representatives of the leader of the Syrian Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham (Abu Muhammad al-Julani) not give a role to Tehran, which was supporting the regime of ousted Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.”
In a tweet on the “X” platform, Amani wrote: “The United States, after its representative met with Al-Julani, stipulated that the new Syrian government not give any role to Iran in order to establish good relations with the United States.”
He added that the Americans “insisted on such advice to the group between 2011 and 2013, and presented the same condition to President Mohamed Morsi, and when they found Morsi alone, the time had come for American betrayal, and what happened happened and what happened happened.”
The administration of US President Joe Biden announced on Friday that it would not continue to allocate a previously announced reward of $10 million for the arrest of Abu Muhammad al-Julani.
The announcement came after Barbara Leaf, the top US diplomat in the Middle East, met with Ahmed al-Sharaa (Abu Muhammad al-Julani), who was formerly allied with al-Qaeda.
This is the first US diplomatic presence in Syria since the overthrow of Bashar al-Assad.
It is noteworthy that Washington classified “Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham” as a foreign terrorist organization in the United States, and Lief did not indicate whether the sanctions imposed on the group would be eased.
Last updated: December 21, 2024 – 15:03
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