Iran Leader Calls for Bolstering Ties With Syria

Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has praised the Syrian president for preserving the long-standing resistance-based identity of his country.

Bashar al-Assad traveled to Tehran on May 30, to offer his condolences to Iranian officials over the deaths of former President Ebrahim Raisi, former Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian and other officials in a helicopter crash on May 19, according to the official website of the supreme leader.

In a meeting with the visiting Syrian president, the Iranian leader emphasized the necessity of preserving this resistance identity of Syria and pointed out that Western countries and their followers in the region intended to overthrow the political system of Syria and remove this country from the equation of the region by waging war against Syria, but they did not succeed.

He pointed to the political and economic “pressures” imposed by the US and Europe on Iran and Syria, saying that “we must overcome these conditions by increasing cooperation and regularizing it.”

Referring to the late president Raisi's preparation to increase the cooperation between Iran and Syria in various fields, Khamenei pointed out that currently acting President Mohammed Mokhber has the powers of the president and continues the same approach.

Khamenei stressed that Iran sees a bright future for the region and said that "we hope that we all can bear the responsibility to reach that bright future."

The Syrian president, for his part, stressed that Iran and Syria relations are a strategic relationship that is progressing, adding that Raisi and Amir-Abdollahian were at the forefront of the implementation of this guidance.

Emphasizing that Syria’s position has always been that any retreat against the West will encourage them to advance, Assad stated, "I announced a few years ago that the cost of resistance is lower than the cost of compromise, and this issue is now very clear to the Syrian people."

The Syrian president appreciated the important role of the Iranian supreme leader in supporting the resistance in the region and also in supporting Syria in all fields.

Iran has repeatedly pursued to increase its involvement in Syria's reconstruction as well as to boost economic dealings. However, Damascus used its recent regional rehabilitation, facilitated by Saudi Arabia, to encourage wealthy Gulf states to invest in the reconstruction field. Despite the years-long partnership, Iran-Syria bilateral trade has dropped in recent years.

In mid-May, the Syrian president joined a communique by the Gulf Cooperation Council, reiterating support for the United Arab Emirates in its long-standing dispute with the Islamic Republic over the three Iran-controlled Gulf islands of Abu Musa, Greater Tunb and Lesser Tunb. However, Iran’s Foreign Ministry Spokesman Nasser Kanani rejected parts of the Arab League statement but did not mention Syria's affirmation of the UAE claim through signing it.

Iranian military forces deployed in Syria since the beginning of the country's civil war have frequently been hit by Israel. In July 2020, Iran and Syria signed a comprehensive agreement to enhance their cooperation in the military and defense sectors.

Iran reportedly tries to integrate their proxies into the Syrian army to establish a long-term influence in Syria’s military and security sectors. However, Tehran denies maintaining a military presence in Syria and refers to its troops as "military advisers".

On April 1, the Iranian consulate building in Damascus, Syria, was destroyed in an Israeli air strike, which killed seven people, including the commander of Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps’ (IRGC) Quds Force in Syria and Lebanon Brig-Gen Mohammad Reza Zahedi, his deputy Mohammad Hadi Haji Rahimi.

The Quds Force, an external arm of the IRGC, is primarily responsible for extraterritorial military and covert operations. Zahedi is the most senior IRGC officer who has been killed since the assassination of the commander of the Quds Force, Qasem Soleimani by the US in a drone attack in Baghdad in January 2020.