Baladi - Follow ups
Iran will maintain its military presence in Syria despite US pressure for its withdrawal, a senior Iranian official said on Tuesday, revealing more details about a military cooperation deal that Tehran and Damascus signed this week.
Iranian Defense Minister Amir Hatami visited Damascus on Saturday for talks with "Bashar al-Assad" and senior military officials. He signed a deal for military cooperation in a meeting with his Syrian counterpart, but details of the accord were not revealed.
“The continued presence of Iranian (military) advisers in Syria was part of this military cooperation agreement between Tehran and Damascus,” the state news agency IRNA quoted Tehran’s military attache to Damascus, Abolqassem Alinejad, as saying.
Iran’s Revolutionary Guards have sent weapons and thousands of soldiers to Syria to help shore up Assad during the seven-year-long civil war there.
US National Security Adviser John Bolton reiterated last week Washington’s call for Iran to remove all its forces from Syria.
Israel has also long called for its arch-foe Iran to withdraw from its neighbour Syria.
A senior Israeli official said in an anonymous statement to reporters that Israel’s military “will continue to act with full determination against attempts by Iran to transfer military forces and weapons systems to Syria”.
Iran has repeatedly said its military presence in Syria is at the invitation of the Assad government and that it has no immediate plans to withdraw. More than 1,000 Iranians, including senior members of the elite Revolutionary Guards, have been killed in Syria since 2012.
Source: The Middle East Monitor