DAMASCUS: Visiting Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi on Wednesday appreciated Syria’s Bashar al-Assad for overcoming sanctions and achieving “victory” in the nation’s 12-year-long civil war, in which Tehran has been a main ally.
The Syria conflict has killed over 500,000 people, displaced millions, and damaged the country’s industry and infrastructure. While the front lines have nearly quietened recently, large swaths of the country’s north are still outside government control.
Raisi told Assad that Syria’s government and public have gone through great difficulties, and today it can be said that they have overcome all these challenges and achieved victory despite the threats and sanctions, Iran’s IRNA news agency reported quoting a statement from the Syrian presidency.
Tehran has provided political, economic, and military support to Damascus, helping it claw back most of the territory it lost at the initial stages of the conflict and placing itself in a leading role as Assad tries to focus on reconstruction.
Both nations remain under massive Western sanctions.
The statement said that Assad told Raisi that Syria-Iran relations were steady and stable during difficult times despite massive security and political storms that struck the Middle East.
Assad added that Iran did not hesitate to provide economic and political support to Syria and even offered blood.
Raisi’s landmark visit
Raisi’s trip is the first by an Iranian president to Syria since the war started and comes at a time when more regional countries are re-engaging with the isolated government in Damascus.
The large Iranian delegation included the ministers of defence, foreign affairs, oil, roads & urban development, and telecommunications.
SANA reported that Assad and Raisi inked memoranda of understanding (MoU) on long-term strategic cooperation, covering areas including oil, railways, aviation, and agriculture.
The trip comes just weeks after Iran’s landmark, Chinese-brokered deal to restore relations with regional rival Saudi Arabia, which has generated a flurry of diplomacy in the region.
Security forces were heavily deployed in important parts of the Syrian capital Damascus. At the same time, billboards with portraits of presidents reading “welcome” in Persian and Arabic lined the airport road.
Iranian and Syrian flags also flew along the road to the Sayyida Zeinab mausoleum, located south of Damascus, a pilgrimage site for Shiites which Raisi was likely to visit. –AFP
