President Ebrahim Raeisi said Iran is the Syrian nation’s real friend and willing to stand by the Arab country through enhancing all-out economic cooperation now that it is in the “era of reconstruction.”
Making the remarks in an address to a meeting with visiting Syrian Defense Minister Ali Mahmoud Abbas in Tehran, Raeisi reminded that Iran stood by the Syrian government and nation during their resistance against foreign-backed terrorism, president.ir reported.
He described bilateral ties as strategic, stressing that they have been founded on common beliefs and the two peoples’ spirits of resistance.
Raeisi said the Syrian armed forces’ efforts to protect the nation and government against bids to instigate sedition in the country are a source of hope for the country and its people.
The Syrian minister, for his part, said his country managed to emerge victorious in the face of terrorism thanks to the support provided by its real brothers and friends and will play its role as one of the links of the resistance axis more powerful than before.
He added the resistance axis will have an important role in the formation of the new world order, warning that the enemies have always been waiting for an opportunity to harm deep and brotherly ties between Syria and Iran, but their bilateral relations are such deep-rooted and strong that no one can cause any damage to them.
Earlier in the day, the Syrian defense minister met Chief Commander of the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) Major General Hossein Salami, IRNA reported.
In an address to the meeting, Salami highlighted the importance of developing defense and military cooperation between Iran and Syria, expressing readiness to provide the Syrian armed forces with assistance in the needed fields.
In a meeting with Abbas earlier on Monday, Chairman of the Chiefs of Staff of the Iranian Armed Forces Major General Mohammad Baqeri praised Syria for standing at the forefront of support for Palestine against Israel ever since the regime illegally occupied and annexed Arab lands in 1967, calling for stronger defense ties and plans to hold a joint war game with the country.
“Muslims and Arabs are duty-bound to stand by Syria in this regard. You have done a great job and put up considerable resistance,” Baqeri added.
He noted, “The Zionist regime has perpetrated all forms of crimes over the past decades, occupying Palestinian territories, and it must be held accountable to the peoples of the world. This is while some Arab countries have turned to normalization of ties [with Israel] and betrayed the cause of Palestine as well as Arab and Muslim worlds.”
“The Syrian government and nation have thwarted the plot hatched more than a decade ago. They defended their homeland through strong willpower and steadfastness. We felicitate you and your colleagues on this victory,” the top commander said.
 

Iran strongly condemned the imposition of a new round of sanctions by the European Union and Britain on Iranian individuals and entities, saying it will soon announce its own list of sanctions against those “human rights violators” and “sponsors of terrorism”.
Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Nasser Kanaani on Tuesday said Tehran reserves the right to retaliate against the hostile move, which targeted a number of Iranian lawmakers as well as judicial, military and cultural officials, according to Press TV.
“The move by the European Union and the British regime shows their lack of mental ability to comprehend the realities in Iran and also their confusion over the Islamic Republic of Iran’s power,” he said.  
The European Union on Monday imposed sanctions on more than 30 Iranian officials and organizations for what it claimed to be a “brutal crackdown” on and “repression” of recent protests, which were triggered by the death of a young Iranian woman in Tehran last September.
Sweden, which currently holds the EU rotating presidency, said the bloc’s foreign ministers had “adopted a new package of sanctions against Iran, targeting those driving the repression” in their meeting in Brussels.
The United States and Britain also issued new sanctions against Iran on Monday.
Kanaani said the new EU and British sanctions displayed their “desperation and anger” with their recent ignominious defeat in fomenting instability in Iran despite their bids and bearing heavy costs.
The spokesperson noted that the EU and Britain are well aware that the sanctions will have no impact on the Iranian nation’s will to counter foreign interference and plots.
Back in December, the EU foreign ministers agreed to impose new sanctions on a number of Iranian individuals and entities over an alleged crackdown on recent protests and drone deliveries to Russia for use in the Ukraine war.
The 27-nation bloc imposed sanctions on 20 individuals along with entities – including the Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting – over alleged human rights abuses, while four more people and as many entities were blacklisted over the issue of drones.
The Western countries’ anti-Iran campaign reached new peaks after the tragic death of Mahsa Amini on September 16. Her death instigated riots, which were immediately picked up by Western-based media outlets and officials, who – without providing any convincing evidence – started claiming that the woman had been “murdered” by police forces.
Iran immediately released the CCTV footage showing the young woman fainting at a police station and being subsequently transferred to a hospital. In the meantime, Iranian authorities conducted an investigation into the incident, concluding that Amini’s death had been caused by an illness, rather than alleged beatings to her head or body.

Iranian foreign minister and Parliament speaker on Tuesday vigorously condemned the desecration of the Holy Qur’an in Sweden.
In an address to the 26th meeting of the Council of Foreign Ministers of the Economic Cooperation Organization (ECO) in Tashkent, Uzbekistan, Hossein Amir-Abdollahian strongly condemned any sacrilegious act against the sanctities of divine religions, particularly the Holy Qur’an of Muslims, IRNA reported.
The foreign minister said Western states’ support for these acts in the name of freedom of expression is totally unacceptable.
Parliament Speaker Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf also said Swedish politicians cannot conceal their conspicuous and planned Islamophobia behind their mask of freedom of speech.
He added that the shameless sacrilegious act of burning the Holy Qur’an in Sweden is strongly condemned, noting that such actions and insults to religious sanctities have hurt the feelings of Muslims across the world.
On Saturday, right-wing Danish-Swedish leader Rasmus Paludan received permission from Sweden’s government to burn the sacred Muslim book in front of the Turkish Embassy in Stockholm. He was protected by the police while committing the blasphemous act.

Iran’s foreign minister censured the European Parliament’s “visceral” vote calling for the designation of the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) as a “terror group”, warning that such conduct would be “costly” for Europe.
Hossein Amir-Abdollahian said the correct path for Europe would be rather to concentrate on diplomacy, constructive interaction and rationality, Press TV reported.
“We strongly condemn the meddlesome and unconventional resolution of the European Parliament,” Amir-Abdollahian said in an address to the 26th meeting of the Council of Foreign Ministers of the Economic Cooperation Organization (ECO) in Tashkent, Uzbekistan.
“Undoubtedly, the adverse consequences of such emotional behavior will be costly for Europe,” he said.
The European Parliament on Thursday passed a resolution, calling for more sanctions against Iranian individuals and entities and putting the IRGC on the EU terrorist list over alleged human rights violations during the recent riots.
However, EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said on Monday that the bloc cannot list the IRGC as a “terrorist” entity without an EU court decision.
In an opinion published by Al Jazeera, Amir-Abdollahian said recent disturbances in Iran, ignited under the pretext of protesting 22-year-old Mahsa Amini’s death, have found a disproportionate echo in the West, mainly due to the security context created by the Ukraine crisis, leading the EU to assume a biased position and make unjustified decisions informed by a deluge of disinformation, faulty logic, and fake news.
Attempts are being made within the EU to designate the IRGC as “a terrorist organization”, he added, saying there are, of course, no grounds for such a decision.
Amir-Abdollahian noted that while throngs of EU citizens were rushing to our region to join “terrorist” groups across the extremist spectrum, the IRGC had entered Iraq and Syria’s battlefronts on official invitation from their respective governments, to assist them in their fight against “terrorism” in general and Daesh in particular.
Branding the IRGC a “terrorist organization” would be a colossal mistake on the part of the EU – a mistake Iran cannot be expected to ignore, he warned, saying such a designation would encroach upon Iran’s sovereignty, flouting international law and the Charter of the United Nations.  “Designating the IRGC as a ‘terrorist organization’ would have many unwanted legal and political consequences for all involved parties.”