MESOP Iran Daily: Top Official – “We Will Maintain Intervention in Syria and Iraq”

A senior Iranian official has asserted that the Islamic Republic will maintain its military intervention in Syria and Iraq.

17 Aug 2016 – By Scott Lucas – eaworldview – The Secretary of the Supreme National Security Council, Ali Shamkhani, spoke on Tuesday as Russia confirmed an agreement for its bombers to use a base in western Iran. Moscow’s Defense Ministry said Tu22-33M bombers, some of the largest in its air force, had begun raids across northern Syria on “terrorists”.

Shamkhani implicitly referred to the agreement: “[Iran and Russia] enjoy strategic cooperation in the fight against terrorism in Syria and share their facilities and capacities to this end.”After a meeting with his Iraqi counterpart, Shamkhani maintained the line that Iran’s escalation of commanders, troops, and Iranian-led foreign militias in Syria and Iraq is “advisory”: The Islamic Republic of Iran will proceed with its expanded advisory cooperation with and assistance to the Iraqi and Syrian governments until complete elimination of the threat of terrorist seditious acts in the region.

The official declared “enemy plots to divide and weaken Muslim countries” through the support of “extremist ideology and Takfiri terrorism”.

Speaking specifically about the campaign against the Islamic State in Iraq, Shamkhani said:

The continuous successes of the Iraqi army and popular forces in the fight against Takfiri terrorism and a considerable improvement of the security situation in the country have prepared the ground for a leap in trade and economic relations between Tehran and Baghdad as two strategic partners.