“From our standpoint, those who attack wheat silos and power plants which supply electricity to people’s houses are not opposition, but are terrorists opposed to the people of Syria,” Hossein Amir-Abdollahian, the deputy Iranian foreign minister for Arab and African affairs, said on Thursday in Beijing where he is on a state visit.
“Terrorists are simultaneously targeting people, opposition groups who favor political solution, and the [Syrian] government,” he said.
“Some armed and extremist operatives have sneaked into Syria from Afghanistan, Yemen, Egypt, Libya, Tunisia, and even neighboring countries and are carrying out terrorist operations. The question is if they belong to opposition groups in Syria,” he added.
Amir-Abdollahian reaffirmed Iran’s opposition to any intervention in Syria, saying, “Some foreign governments insisted on intervention in Syria, but the veto of three [related] international courses of action by China and Russia stripped the enemies of the people of this important Middle East country of any pretext [to do so].”
Syria has been experiencing unrest since mid-March 2011. Many people, including large numbers of Army and security personnel, have been killed in the violence.
The Syrian government says the chaos is being orchestrated from outside the country, and there are reports that a very large number of the militants fighting the Syrian government are foreign nationals.
Several international human rights organizations have accused foreign-sponsored militants of committing war crimes.
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Publish Date: 18 January 2013 - 12:23
Iran has condemned terrorist activities in Syria, describing the terrorist elements as those operating simultaneously against the people of Syria, Syrian opposition, and government.