Iranian senior officials visiting Lebanon on Tuesday told Prime Minister Najib Mikati he must remain alert to end the "American-Israeli intervention in Syria’s internal affairs," the Lebanon Daily Star reports.
“All the forces of resistance against the Israeli and American projects, mainly the Islamic Republic of Iran, Lebanon, the resistance in Palestine, and Hamas, should be extremely alert, attentive and wise in order to end the American-Israeli intervention in the internal affairs of Syria,” Mohammad-Reza Bahonar, Iran’s deputy speaker of Parliament, told reporters in Lebanon’s Grand Serail after his meeting with Mikati.
Bahonar echoed comments made by Iranian Ambassador Ghadanfar Rukn Abadi last week that the situation in Syria is different from that of the rest of the Arab world, reiterating Iran’s belief that Syria is being targeted by a nefarious US-Israeli conspiracy.
“We think that what is currently happening in Syria is a form of an American-Israeli conspiracy with the participation of American allies and Israeli Zionism … We think that the purpose behind [Syria's situation] is not to hold banners that call for reform but to cut Syria’s ties with the resistance,” he said.
Syria has been home to mass protests and a bloody crackdown claiming some 1,400 civilian lives since mid-March with anti-government protestors calling for President Bashar Assad's outset.
For his part, Assad has repeatedly described the protests as a Zionist conspiracy against the country.
Bahonar said he and Mikati also discussed the current uprisings in the region and the role played by Western countries, especially the US.
"Both of us expressed our conviction that the West, and especially the US, are trying to steer these popular Arab uprisings the way it desires, serving its imperialist American interests," Bahonar said.
Bahonar's anti-Israel, anti-American screed comes as Hizbullah and its political allies seek to avert attention from domestic tensions rising from the Mikati's government pandering to Hizbullah over the Special Tribunal for Lebanon by calling for "national unity" against "Zionist aggression."