Iran's defense minister hailed his country's "strategic ties" with Syria on Sunday, just days after Israel
called on Damascus to distance itself from Tehran, Iran's official IRNA news agency reported.
Espionage Affair
Israeli accused of relaying information to Iran / Vered Luvitch
State charges Iranian-born Israeli citizen with contacting a foreign agent, relaying information to an enemy state, fraudulently obtaining goods. Man maintains innocence
Israel and Syria
on Wednesday announced they had begun an open dialogue with the aim of a comprehensive peace, the first confirmation of negotiations between the long-time enemies in eight years.
But Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni on
Thursday said Syria needed to "distance itself completely" from "problematic ties" with Iran.
Syria, she said, must also stop "Supporting terror—Hizbullah, Hamas", groups backed by Iran.
In Tehran on Sunday, Iranian Defense Minister Mostafa Mohammad Najjar described Syria as a strategic ally before talks with his Syrian counterpart Hassan Turkmani, IRNA said.
"Iran-Syria ties are strategic ties founded on the national interests of the two countries and the world of Islam," he said.
US slams Syria's support for terror
Turkmani said, according to IRNA: "The robust Iran-Syria ties neutralize and weaken threats against the line of resistance."
Iranian state television later said in a scrolling headline that Turkmani "rejects any precondition" in talks with Israel.
Syria has demanded the return of the Golan Heights, a plateau overlooking Damascus on one side and the Sea of Galilee on the other, since the Jewish state captured it in the 1967 Middle East war.
The United States, in its initial public reaction to Israeli-Syrian contacts, said it did not object to talks but repeated its criticism of Syria's "support for terrorism".
Many analysts say US hostility to Damascus, and to its Iranian and Lebanese Hizbullah allies, makes a Syrian-Israel deal unlikely before President George W. Bush leaves office in January.
The United States accuses Iran of seeking to build nuclear weapons. The Islamic Republic denies the charge and says its nuclear program is aimed at generating electricity so that it can export more of its oil and gas.
RSS
