Iran receives Syria’s new foreign minister

The US is keeping a presence in Syria in an effort to “pillage oil” and “ensure Israel’s security”, a senior Iranian security official said yesterday during a meeting with Syria’s foreign minister.

Secretary-General of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council (SNSC), Ali Shamkhani, yesterday received the Syrian Foreign Minister, Faisal Mekdad, in Tehran and discussed bilateral and regional issues.

During the meeting, Shamkhani stressed on the importance of the strategic relations between Syria and Iran as well as the need to strengthen them.

He said that the United States is staying in Syrian to “pillage oil, ensure Israel’s security and strengthen the presence of Daesh terrorists in the region.”

The top security official stressed that the world will be more secure without Israel, adding that the “rulers who are normalising ties with the fake regime of Israel will not have a fate better than that of [former Libyan leader] Muammar Gaddafi and [former Sudanese President] Omar Al-Bashir.”

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For his part, Mekdad said Syrians will not forget the sacrifices of Iranian leaders and soldiers.

Earlier on Monday, the Syrian foreign minister met with his Iranian counterpart, Muhammad Javad Zarif, and discussed bilateral relations as well as regional and international issues and the joint fight against terrorism.

Mekdad affirmed his government’s determination to continue fighting terrorism, describing the joint cooperation between the two countries in this field as “important”, and an essential step towards restoring peace and stability to Syria.