Syrian president meets Iranian leader in Tehran – Iranian state media

By Parisa Hafezi

DUBAI (Reuters) – Syrian President Bashar al-Assad visited his closest regional ally Iran on Sunday for talks with Supreme Chief Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, throughout which each leaders known as for stronger ties between Tehran and Damascus, Iranian state media reported.

Assad, who was making his second journey to Tehran because the begin of Syria’s conflict in 2011, additionally met Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi throughout his journey, Iran’s state information company IRNA reported.

“At present’s Syria just isn’t what it was earlier than the conflict, though there have been no destructions then, however the respect and status of Syria is bigger than earlier than, and everybody sees this nation as an influence,” Khamenei advised Assad, in line with Iran’ state TV.

Assad was capable of flip the tide of Syria’s civil conflict, which erupted from pro-democracy protests in 2011, with essential assist from Iran’s proxy militias and Russia’s main army intervention in 2015.

Iranian State TV quoted Assad as saying that “the strategic ties between Iran and Syria has prevented the Zionist regime’s (Israel) dominance within the area”. Iran’s Nournews stated Assad had left Tehran for Syria.

Israel, Which the Islamic Republic refuses to recognise, has mounted frequent assaults in opposition to what it has described as Iranian targets in Syria, the place Tehran-backed forces together with Lebanon’s Hezbollah have deployed over the past decade to assist Assad in Syria’s conflict.

Iran’s President Raisi stated in assembly with Assad that his authorities’s precedence was to strengthen strategic ties with Syria, Iran’s semi-official Tasnim information company reported.

Iran’s financial affect in Syria has grown in recent times, supplying Assad’s authorities with credit score strains and successful profitable enterprise contracts.

(Writing by Parisa Hafezi; Enhancing by Edmund Blair, Susan Fenton and Raissa Kasolowsky)