Regional states back Syria after militants resurgence
Arab League stresses need to respect Syria’s territorial integrity
Many countries in the region threw their support behind the Syrian government and its territorial integrity amid a surprise offensive by foreign-backed militants.
Jordan’s King Abdullah II on Sunday in a phone call with Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani said Jordan “stands by the brothers in Syria and its territorial integrity, sovereignty and stability.”
Iraqi prime minister also told Syrian President Bashar al-Assad that his country’s security was key to the stability of the whole region.
“Shia al-Sudani emphasized that Syria’s security and stability are closely linked to Iraq’s national security and play a crucial role in regional security and efforts to establish stability in the Middle East,” his office said.
Meanwhile, the Arab League in a statement stressed the need to respect the unity, sovereignty and territorial integrity of Syria.
Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian also reacted to the developments in Syria, calling on the Muslim countries to intervene in the Syrian crisis and not allow the US and Israel to exploit the internal conflict in the Islamic Arab country.
Stressing that the aggression by militants is supported by the United States and European countries, Pezeshkian said, “These actions are being carried out with American and European weapons.”
Araghchi in Damascus
Meanwhile, Iran’s top diplomat Abbas Araghchi reiterated Iran’s firm support for Syria’s government and its armed forces before leaving Tehran for Damascus to meet Syrian officials.
Araghchi called the surprise attack a plot by the US and Israel.
“The Syrian army will once again win over these terrorist groups as in the past,” the foreign minister added.
Foreign-backed insurgents broke through government defense lines in Syria’s second largest city Aleppo on Friday and entered the city’s western neighborhood. The insurgents launched their shock offensive in Aleppo and Idlib countryside on Wednesday and wrested control of dozens of villages and towns along the way, including a strategic town south of Aleppo.
Nearly 1K militants killed in northwestern Syria
According to Syrian media outlets, nearly a thousand militants have been killed in Syria’s northwestern provinces of Aleppo and Idlib in the past days, as Syrian forces are pressing ahead with their counteroffensive operations.
The terrorists have reportedly been killed by Syrian troops with Russian air support.
Syrian president in a phone call with an official from the breakaway Georgian republic of Abkhazia said, “Terrorism only understands the language of force, and that is the language which we will break it and eliminate it with, whoever its supporters and sponsors are.”
In a separate phone call with his Emirati counterpart, the Syrian president said his country could defeat “all terrorists and their backers.”
“Syria continues to defend its stability and territorial integrity in the face of all terrorists and their backers, and it is capable, with the help of its allies and friends, of defeating and eliminating them, no matter how intense their terrorist attacks are,” his office quoted him as saying during a call with the President of the United Arab Emirates Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan.
In recent years, Syria has been breathing a sigh of relief after years of confronting a foreign-backed insurgency which began in 2011 after demonstrations against Syrian government turned into a full-scale war in the country.