Iran condemns airstrike, opposes Turkish transfer into Syria

Iran’s international minister on Saturday condemned an Israeli airstrike on Syria earlier within the day and mentioned Tehran opposes any army operation by Turkey in Syria’s north.

Hossein Amirabdollahian made his feedback at first of a go to to the Syrian capital Damascus, the place he was anticipated to debate mutual relations and regional affairs with high Syrian officers.

Iran has been one in every of Syrian President Bashar Assad’s strongest backers, sending hundreds of fighters from across the area to assist his troops in Syria’s 11-year battle. The warfare has killed a whole lot of hundreds and displaced half the nation’s pre-war inhabitants of 23 million.

Amirabdollahian’s go to got here hours after Israel carried out an airstrike on a coastal Syrian village close to the border with Lebanon wounding two individuals, Syrian state media reported.

It additionally comes after Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has repeatedly mentioned he’s planning a significant army operation to create a 30-kilometer (19 mile) deep buffer zone inside Syria alongside Turkey’s border.

He mentioned he would do this by means of a cross-border incursion towards US-allied Syrian Kurdish fighters — an try that failed in 2019.

“We understand the concerns of our neighbour Turkey but we oppose any military measure in Syria,” Amirabdollahian mentioned, including that Iran is attempting to resolve the “misunderstanding between Turkey and Syria through dialogue.” Analysts have mentioned Erdogan is benefiting from the warfare in Ukraine to push his personal targets in Syria. Turkey agreed this week to raise its opposition to Sweden and Finland becoming a member of NATO, saying the Nordic nations had agreed to crack down on teams that Ankara deems nationwide safety threats, together with the Kurdistan Workers’ Party, or PKK, and its Syrian extension.

Turkey has demanded that Finland and Sweden extradite needed people and raise arms restrictions imposed after Turkey’s 2019 army incursion into
northeast Syria.

Amirabdollahian blasted Israel saying that by means of its airstrikes it’s attempting to destabilise Syria and present that the nation lacks safety.

The Israel assault was the primary since a June 10 airstrike on the worldwide airport within the Syrian capital of Damascus precipitated vital injury to infrastructure and runways and rendered the primary runway unusable. The airport was closed for 2 weeks and flights resumed on June 23.

State information company SANA mentioned Israeli warplanes flying over northern Lebanon fired missiles towards a number of rooster farms within the village of Hamidiyeh south of the coastal metropolis of Tartus. The assault occurred just a few kilometers (miles) north of the border with Lebanon.

SANA mentioned two individuals, together with a girl, have been wounded and there was materials injury.

Israel has staged a whole lot of strikes towards targets in Syria over time however hardly ever acknowledges or discusses such operations. Israel says it targets bases of Iran-allied militias, corresponding to Hezbollah, which has fighters deployed in Syria combating on the aspect of Assad’s authorities forces and ships arms believed to be certain for the militias.

The Damascus International Airport strike marked a significant escalation in Israel’s marketing campaign, additional ratcheting up tensions between Israel on one aspect and Iran and its Lebanese ally, the militant Hezbollah group, on the opposite.