Associated Press – Iran’s new president expressed his country’s support to Syria’s embattled leader Bashar Assad’s regime Sunday, saying no force in the world will be able to shake their decades-old alliance.
Hasan Rouhani’s comments came as Syrian troops and rebels fought some of the fiercest battles in the mountains of the coastal province of Latakia, an Assad stronghold.
Rouhani made the comments during a meeting in the Iranian capital of Tehran on Sunday with Syrian Prime Minister Wael al-Halqi, Syria’s state news agency SANA said.
Syria has been Tehran’s strongest ally in the Arab world since Iran’s 1979 Islamic Revolution.
Iran has been one of Assad’s staunchest backers since Syria’s crisis began. Tehran is believed to have supplied Assad’s with billions of dollars since the country’s crisis began in March 2011. Iran-supported Hezbollah also has sent fighters into Syria to bolster an offensive by Assad forces.
“The Islamic Republic of Iran aims to strengthen its relations with Syria and will stand by it in facing all challenges,” SANA quoted Rouhani as saying in a report from Tehran. “The deep, strategic and historic relations between the people of Syria and Iran … will not be shaken by any force in the world.”