3 May. (EUROPE PRESS) –
The president of Iran, Ebrahim Raisi, has arrived this Wednesday in the Syrian capital, Damascus, within the framework of the first official visit to the Arab country since the outbreak of the war in 2011, in which Tehran has been a firm ally of the Syrian President Bashar al Assad.
The plane in which Raisi was traveling has arrived at the Damascus airport early in the day ahead of a two-day visit, in which he heads a delegation that also includes Iranian Foreign Minister Hosein Amirabdolahian.
Amirabdolahian himself has indicated in his account on the social network Twitter that “the importance of this trip, in addition to the political, economic and security aspects, is the manifestation of the victory of the political will of the resistance and the success of the diplomacy of the Iranian Government when completing a process of regional integration”.
According to information collected by the Iranian news agency Mehr, Raisi will meet with Al Assad and other senior Syrian officials to assess possible ways to strengthen bilateral relations and increase commercial and economic cooperation between Tehran and Damascus.
The Syrian president defended on Tuesday during an interview with the Lebanese television channel Al Mayadin that “Syria must exercise its sovereignty over all its territory” and showed Tehran’s willingness to “cooperate with the Syrian people and government to rebuild the country.”
He also criticized the presence of US troops in the Arab country and stressed that “we must reveal the lies of the US fight against terrorism and let the whole world know that, on the contrary, they are at the forefront of terrorism.”
Finally, he warned that “any Israeli action against Iran would imply the destruction of that regime” and noted that the Israeli authorities are “angry” about the agreement signed in March between Iran and Saudi Arabia to restore their bilateral relations, broken in 2016.
