Publish Date: 31 August 2013 - 23:09

An Iranian parliamentary delegation has arrived in the Syrian capital Damascus to hold talks with the country’s President Bashar al-Assad.

The delegation, headed by Chairman of the Majlis National Security and Foreign Policy Committee of Iran’s Majlis Alaeddin Boroujerdi, left Tehran for Damascus earlier on Saturday.

Spokesman for the committee Hossein Naqavi Hosseini said that one of the messages of the visit was to express Iran’s support for the resistance front.

“The first message is that the Iranian nation and government are against any foreign military intervention in Syria and will make every effort to prevent foreign countries from finding the opportunity to interfere in Syria,” Naqavi Hosseini added.

The rhetoric of war against Syria primarily intensified after foreign-backed opposition forces accused the government of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad of launching a chemical attack on militant strongholds in the suburbs of Damascus on August 21.

A number of Western countries, including the United States, France, and the UK, were quick to engage in a major publicity campaign to promote war against Syria despite the fact that Damascus categorically rejected the claim that it has been behind the attack.

On Wednesday however, the British government, the closest US ally, announced that its support for military intervention in Syria would require a second vote in the country’s parliament.

A first non-binding vote in the British legislature on August 29 rejected British presence in a potential war on Syria.

Syria has been gripped by deadly unrest since 2011. According to reports, the Western powers and their regional allies -- especially Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and Turkey -- are supporting the militants operating inside Syria.

Iran, Russia, and China, as well as the United Nations, have warned against war.