Iran to maintain military presence in Syria: Official

ANKARA, 08 July 2018 [Fik/News Sources]: Iran will maintain its military presence in Syria after the defeat of the Daesh terrorist organization, according to an Iranian official on Sunday.

“The Zionist regime (Israel) is trying to dominate Syria after (fall of) the Daesh terrorist group, but the Resistance forces and the military advisers of the Islamic Republic of Iran will continue their presence in Syria to counter terrorism,” Senior adviser to the Iranian parliament speaker for international affairs Hossein Amir Abdollahian told a meeting in Tehran with Palestinian Ambassador Salah al-Zawawi.

“Syrians will not allow the country to once again become a safe haven for Zionist terrorists,” he added in statements carried by local media. 

In recent months, Israel has carried out several air attacks on Iranian targets inside Syria that reportedly left a number of Iranian military personnel dead.

Israeli officials have repeatedly said they would not allow Iran to maintain a long-term military presence in Syria.

Iran and Hezbollah are strong allies of Syria’s Bashar al-Assad regime, the forces of which have been fighting opposition groups in a deadly civil war since 2011.

Since then, hundreds of thousands of people are believed to have been killed and millions more displaced by the conflict.