Iran, Russia naval presence in Syrian waters message to US: MP

Russian warships arrived at the Syrian port city of Tartus on Sunday, January 8.

“The United States should take Iran's warning about [refraining from any possible] military intervention in Syria seriously.”
Hossein Ebrahimi Deputy head of the Majlis National Security and Foreign Policy Committee

A senior Iranian lawmaker says the presence of Iranian and Russian naval forces in Syria’s coastal waters is a clear warning to the US to refrain from any possible military adventurism.

“The United States should take Iran's warning about [refraining from any possible] military intervention in Syria seriously,” Hossein Ebrahimi, deputy chairman of Iran Majlis National Security and Foreign Policy Committee, said Sunday.

He added that in the event of a US strategic mistake in Syria, Washington may receive a crushing response from Iran, Syria and a few other countries.

On Sunday, January 8, a large Russian navy flotilla led by an aircraft carrier arrived at the Syrian port of Tartus in the Mediterranean Sea for a six-day port call, to show Moscow's solidarity with Damascus.

"The port call is aimed at bringing the two countries closer together and strengthening their ties of friendship," the official SANA news agency quoted a Russian naval officer Yakushin Vladimir Anatolievich as saying.

Two Iranian Navy ships also docked in the Syrian port of Tartus on Friday, February 17, to train Syrian naval forces under an agreement signed between Tehran and Damascus one year ago.

“Syrians are against any form of foreign intervention in their country, but the United States by arming opposition groups is trying to harm the [anti-Israeli] axis of resistance in the region [in order to] affect Islamic Awakening in regional countries,” Ebrahimi added.

The lawmaker went on to say that the recent dispatch of a number of unmanned military and intelligence drones for operations in Syrian skies by the US military will only result in more solidarity among the Syrians.

NBC News quoted unnamed US defense officials as saying on February 18 that US drones are monitoring “the Syrian military attacks against opposition forces and civilians.”

Syria has been the scene of unrest since mid-March, 2011, with demonstrations being held both against and in support of President Bashar al-Assad's government.

The West and the Syrian opposition accuse the government of killing protesters. But Damascus blames ''outlaws, saboteurs and armed terrorist groups'' for the unrest, insisting that it is being orchestrated from abroad. 

Supporters of Syria’s Assad demonstrate in Southern Turkey

File photo of a Syrian demonstration in support of President Bashar al-Assad in the capital Damascus

Supporters of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad have held a demonstration in the southern Turkish city of Antakya near the border with Syria, Press TV reports.

Hundreds of Syrians demonstrated in support of President Assad on Sunday and condemned international attempts against the Syrian government.

Demonstrators also chanted the name of the Syrian president and urged him to resist foreign pressures against Damascus.

The demonstration in Antakya comes as the United Nations General Assembly approved a non-binding resolution, introduced by Egypt, which supports an Arab League plan concerning the unrest in Syria on February 16.

Syrian Ambassador to the UN Bashar Jaafari said after the UN vote that the resolution “would only lead to a tightening of the crisis and more violence in the region as a whole.”

Jaafari added that the United Nations was in danger of being used by “some member states” as a means of providing cover for “armed terrorist groups” in Syria.

Syria has been experiencing unrest since mid-March 2011, with demonstrations being held both against and in favor of President Assad.

The West and the opposition accuse the government of being behind the months-long unrest, but Damascus says “outlaws, saboteurs and armed terrorist groups” are responsible for the turmoil, which it says has been orchestrated from abroad.