Senior Iranian officials have said on Wednesday, Syria was a top foreign policy priority and that American military forces should withdraw from the region as planned by the United States President Donald Trump.
According to Reuters news reports, a senior adviser to Iranian supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Ali Akbar Velayati was reported as saying, “Whether they want to or not, the Americans must leave Syria.”
There has been some fear in the west that the US president plan to withdraw its about 2,000 American troops from Syria will cede influence to Tehran, which has backed by Syrian President Bashar al-Assad in eight years f war, and also allowed the Islamic State militants to regroup inside Syria.
Addressing a meeting with Syrian foreign minister Walid al-Moualen in Tehran, Velayati added saying, “Now 90 percent of Syrian soil is under the control of the government and the rest will soon be freed by the Syrian army,” according to the Tasnim news agency.
Iranian president Hassan Rouhani told Moualem that peace efforts in Syria were always a priority. Tasnim quoted Rouhani as saying, “One of the important regional and foreign policy goals of the Islamic Republic is the stability and complete security of Syria. And establishing normal conditions in Syria and the return of the people of this country to their normal lives.”
Moualem went to Tehran to discuss negotiation before holding a meeting with the Russian, Iran and Turkey leaders scheduled on February 14 over Syrian conflicts.
besides, deputy commander of the military forces Mahmoud Mousavi on Wednesday said Iran was planning to expands the range of its land-to-sea missiles more than 186 miles (300 km), according to the Fars news agency.
Furthermost, Iran had expanded its nuclear missile programmes, especially its ballistic missiles to defend itself from Washington. the European Union has said on Monday that it was very much concerned by Iranian ballistic missile launches and tests and further urged Iran to stop such activities that help deepen mistrust and also destabilizes the region.