TEHRAN (Dispatches) – Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei said on Wednesday Iran is monitoring developments involving ally Syria after a Russian initiative for Damascus to give up its chemical weapons led to postponement of U.S. strike plans.
"I am hopeful that the United States new attitude to Syria is serious and not a political game. For weeks they have threatened war against the people of this region for the benefit of the Zionists," the Leader said during a public address.
"If this recent approach is serious, it will translate to a return from the headstrong and wrong approach" the United States has adopted by threatening to attack Syria, Ayatollah Khamenei added.
The Leader said, "The Islamic Republic of Iran is carefully monitoring developments, and with vigilance."
Ayatollah Khamenei urged all Muslims to remain vigilant in the face of plots hatched by ill-wishers to create religious strife. “The enemies of the Islamic ummah have realized that conflict among Islamic denominations is in the interest of the occupying Zionist regime."
The Leader touched on the Sunni-Shia strife fuelled by the enemies of Islam in Pakistan, Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria and Bahrain, which has resulted in the deaths of hundreds of innocents, saying hegemonic powers stop at nothing in pursuit of their interests.
“Domineering forces and superpowers, particularly the U.S., believe in no limits for ruining countries and killing people in order to assert their illegal interests.”
Iran actively opposed threats by the United States and France to launch a military strike against Damascus.
While denouncing the use of chemical weapons, it has also backed Syrian claims that insurgents, not the Assad government, carried out the alleged August 21 attacks on Damascus suburbs said to have killed hundreds of people.
Ayatollah Khamenei has repeatedly spoken against war on Syria, warning that a U.S. intervention would spell "disaster" for the region, likening it to "a gunpowder depot".
On Tuesday evening, U.S. President Barack Obama said he would postpone a vote in Congress on U.S. military action against the Syrian government.
He also pledged to explore a Russian plan to remove Syria's chemical arsenal but voiced skepticism about it and urged Americans to support his threat to use military force if needed.
Iran has welcomed the proposal to transfer Syria's chemical weapons stocks and urged all nations to sign the Chemical Weapons Convention treaty that bans their use.
According to Secretary of State John Kerry, the chemical agent attack on August 21 killed more than 1,400 people including more than 400 children.
Iran's Evidence
A senior Iranian official said Tehran has provided the United Nations with conclusive evidence of the use of chemical weapons by the militants in Syria.
“Iran is in possession of strong evidence regarding the militant chemical attack in Syria and has handed on the evidence to the United Nations,” Deputy Foreign Minister for Arab and African affairs Hussein Amir-Abdollahian said.
“Last December, for example, we received news that two sarin gas containers were being transferred to Syria. The containers were sent from an Arab country to a neighboring country, where it triggered security and political reactions,” he added.
Amir-Abdollahian dismissed the accusation that Damascus has used chemical arms, saying the Syrian government does not need to use such weapons.
“At a time when Syria is successfully fighting terrorists, it wouldn’t be logical to use chemical weapons,” said the Iranian official.
Nevertheless, he said, a number of opposition groups inside and outside Syria accused Damascus of having used chemical weapons “because Obama had said the U.S.’s redline was using chemical weapons in Syria”.
“As a victim of chemical arms,” Amir-Abdollahian added, “we diligently pursued the matter and ascertained that the Syrian government had not used this kind of weapon.”
