Iran warns US against targeting Syria army

A senior Iranian official and veteran diplomat has warned the United States against direct military intervention against the Syrian army, saying that would amount to “suicide” for the American forces.

According to Press TV, speaking on Sunday, Ali Akbar Velayati said the Syrian nation can fight back potential American aggression.

“It is almost six years that the people of Syria have been resisting interference by foreigners, especially the Westerners, with the US at the top,” Velayati said. “The Syrian nation has the capability to withstand US military intervention, and the Americans will not do that (launch aggression).”

Velayati, who is an adviser to Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei, said the US has suffered a defeat in military campaigns both in Afghanistan and Iraq and a third adventure, in Syria, would hand Washington its third defeat — a more stinging one.

“If the Americans take military action in Syria, it will be a suicidal action; and their third [military] defeat in the region after Afghanistan and Iraq will be a stronger defeat.”

So far, the US has been supporting, with the provision of military hardware and likely intelligence sharing, what it calls “moderate” militants fighting the Syrian government. 

Recently, however, terrorist sources said that the US was resolved to prevent the fall of the Syrian city of Aleppo, a bastion of anti-Damascus militants that is the target of an ongoing Syrian and Russian campaign for liberation.

SS