NOVANEWS
by crescentandcross
Unlike uprisings in other parts of the Arab world which Tehran has applauded as an ‘Islamic awakening’,the protests in Syria have received little media attention or official comment in Iran; Syria is Iran’s closest Arab ally.
By Reuters
Anti-government demonstrations in Syria are part of a plot by the West to undermine a government that supports “resistance” in the Middle East, Iran’s Foreign Ministry spokesman said on Tuesday.
Unlike uprisings in other parts of the Arab world which Tehran has applauded as an “Islamic awakening” of peoples against Western-backed oppressors, the protests in Syria have received little media attention or official comment in Iran.
Syrian anti-government protesters march in the northeastern town of Qamishli on April 1, 2011
Photo by: AFP
But at his weekly news conference on Tuesday, Iran’s spokesman said the protests in Syria over the last three weeks, in which according to a rights group 200 people died, were not a spontaneous event but the result of foreign interference.
Syria is Iran’s closest Arab ally.
“What is happening in Syria is a mischievous act of Westerners, particularly Americans and Zionists,” Ramin Mehmanparast told reporters.
The spokesman continued, saying that “with the help of their [the West’s] media they are trying to create an artificial protest somewhere or exaggerate a demand of a small group and present it, instead, as the demand and will of the majority.”
“No one should be fooled by this trick that Americans are playing.”
The Iranian government crushed huge protests after the re-election of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in June 2009. Two people were shot dead during a demonstration in February, the first attempt by the opposition movement to rally in more than a year.
Iran’s leaders have branded opposition leaders “seditionists” backed by its Western enemies and parliament has called for the movement’s leaders to be arrested and hanged.
While President Bashar Assad’s government is secular, it has close ties with Iran’s clerical state and both support militant groups Hamas and Hezbollah.
The United States and Israel have accused both Syria and Iran of trafficking arms to those groups in Lebanon and the Gaza Strip, something both countries deny.
Mehmanparast said Western powers were concerned about losing influence in the reshaped Middle East and sought to hurt Tehran and Damascus.
“They want to avenge some countries like Iran and Syria, which support the resistance, by facilitating small groups,” he said. “The Western media tell the world these people are the majority of the society and this is the biggest lie and distortion.”
|
Syrian anti-government protesters march in the northeastern town of Qamishli on April 1, 2011 |
| Photo by: AFP |
But at his weekly news conference on Tuesday, Iran’s spokesman said the protests in Syria over the last three weeks, in which according to a rights group 200 people died, were not a spontaneous event but the result of foreign interference.
Syria is Iran’s closest Arab ally.
“What is happening in Syria is a mischievous act of Westerners, particularly Americans and Zionists,” Ramin Mehmanparast told reporters.
The spokesman continued, saying that “with the help of their [the West’s] media they are trying to create an artificial protest somewhere or exaggerate a demand of a small group and present it, instead, as the demand and will of the majority.”
“No one should be fooled by this trick that Americans are playing.”
The Iranian government crushed huge protests after the re-election of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in June 2009. Two people were shot dead during a demonstration in February, the first attempt by the opposition movement to rally in more than a year.
Iran’s leaders have branded opposition leaders “seditionists” backed by its Western enemies and parliament has called for the movement’s leaders to be arrested and hanged.
While President Bashar Assad’s government is secular, it has close ties with Iran’s clerical state and both support militant groups Hamas and Hezbollah.
The United States and Israel have accused both Syria and Iran of trafficking arms to those groups in Lebanon and the Gaza Strip, something both countries deny.
Mehmanparast said Western powers were concerned about losing influence in the reshaped Middle East and sought to hurt Tehran and Damascus.
“They want to avenge some countries like Iran and Syria, which support the resistance, by facilitating small groups,” he said. “The Western media tell the world these people are the majority of the society and this is the biggest lie and distortion.”
