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US attack against Syria sign of Washington's weakness - Mottaki

IRNA - Islamic Republic News Agency

Damascus, Nov 4, IRNA
Mottaki-Syria-US Attack
Iran's foreign minister said here Monday US helicopter attack against Syria was rather a sign of Washington's desperate status and weakness, than a demonstration of US power aimed at weakening the Damascus Government.

Manouchehr Mottaki made the comment at a press conference after a meeting with the Syrian Vice President Farouq a-Shara, after once again condemning the limited US attack at Syria's Al-Bukamal border region.

During last week attack of four US helicopters against the civilians at a village in Syria's Deyr al-Zour border province with Iraq, eight kilometers into the Syrian soil, eight citizens of that country, including five members of one family, got killed and a number of other villagers got wounded.

According to IRNA correspondent in Damascus, our country's minister of foreign affairs who arrived in Syria a few hours ago met and conferred with al-Shara after his meeting with the Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.

Mottaki added, "The main objective of this short visit is consultations with the Syrian officials regarding the recent invasion of the Iraq-based US forces against the territorial integrity of Syria."

He reiterated, "The stands adopted by the Islamic Republic of Iran in this regard are quite clear and we expressed them both orally immediately after the attack and in form of an official communique, in addition to a phone talk last Friday from President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to President Bashar al-Assad."

He added, "I was commissioned by top Iranian officials to inform Damascus of these stands."

Mottaki said, "We announce the solidarity of the Iranian government and nation with the Syrian leader, government and great nation in this regard and assure you that we will remain by the side of the Syrian government and nation."

Mottaki said, "During the course of the past few days, I was the host of a number of foreign delegations in Tehran and I took a trip to Syria as soon as seeing them off."

He emphasized, "Although the esteemed Syrian Foreign Minister Valid al-Muallem is abroad on another mission, I was commissioned to carry Tehran's message of sympathy to Damascus as soon as possible." Referring to the timely stands adopted by the Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC), the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) and the Arab League (AL) on the matter, which he evaluated as "satisfactory", he said, "Yet, broader efforts seem to be necessary to put an end to the aggressive moves in the region."

Mottaki added, "It is the Syrian government's legal and judiciary right to pursue the matter at the international courts of justice and the Islamic Republic of Iran would be backing up Syrian throughout that procedure."

Our country's foreign minister's last visit of Syria was on July 7th, 2008, in the first leg of his tour of Syrian, Amman and Turkey, in which in addition to discussions on important regional and international developments and bilateral ties, he exchanged ideas with Syrian officials on the agenda of the NAM foreign ministers conference.

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