A top Iranian military official has said that as long as “Takfiri terrorists” operate in Syria and Damascus asks Iranian forces for help, “we will continue to support” Syria.
General Hassan Firoozabadi, a senior advisor to the commander of chief of Iran’s armed forces and former chief of general staff, told IRNA on January 14, “Syria asked for Iran to send military advisors to confront Takfiri terrorists”.
A day earlier, the head of U.S. State Department’s Iran Action Group, Brian Hook had said that as long as there are Iranian forces in Syria, Washington would not assist Syria’s reconstruction efforts.
Hook told CNBC in Abu Dhabi, "We think that if working with everybody in the region, and if we construct our diplomacy the way we want to, that we will be able to get rid of all forces under Iranian control”.
Hook underlined the U.S. determination to drive Iranian forces out, by insisting, "We are not going to permit them do in Syria what they did in Lebanon, and we will be withholding reconstruction assistance, we have a number of tools at our disposal to help accomplish that objective."
The U.S. has set a goal of changing Iran's regional policy and preventing its interventions in Syria and Yemen.