
The Arab League urged Iran on Thursday to avoid actions that could inflame tensions in Syria, following the ouster of Tehran's ally, former president Bashar Al-Assad, AFP reported.
Assad’s government collapsed on December 8, and he fled to Russia—a key backer of his regime—after an Islamist-led coalition gained control of city after city, culminating in the fall of Damascus.
Iran had provided military support to Assad’s forces through more than a decade of civil war.
Near the start of the Syrian civil war, it was reported that then-Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad had personally sanctioned the dispatch of officers from the Iranian Revolutionary Guards to Syria to fight alongside Assad’s troops.
Ali Akbar Velayati, a top aide to Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, made clear several years ago that Iran would withdraw its “military advisers” from Syria and Iraq only if their governments wanted it to.
In Thursday’s statement, the Arab League, which reinstated Assad’s Syria into the bloc last year after a decade of isolation, underscored the importance of respecting Syria’s sovereignty and stability.
It called for “restricting weapons to the hands of the state, dissolving all armed formations, and rejecting all destabilizing foreign interventions.”
The bloc also criticized Iran’s recent rhetoric, stating it “rejects the Iranian statements aimed at fuelling strife among the Syrian people.” However, the specific statements were not detailed.
Iran’s Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, addressed Assad’s fall on Sunday, predicting “the emergence of a strong, honorable group” in Syria and claiming that the country’s youth “have nothing to lose.”
On Thursday, Iran’s foreign ministry spokesman, Esmaeil Baqaei, dismissed accusations of meddling in Syria’s internal affairs as “baseless.” He reaffirmed Iran’s commitment to “supporting the territorial integrity and national unity of Syria and the formation of an inclusive political system.”