Iranian FM, Assad talk of 'Zionist regime's crimes'
Mottaki to Syrian president: Support for armed struggle against occupier is moral and human duty. FM also passes on warm greetings from Iranian president, meets terror group leaders
Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki met Monday with Syria's President Bashar Assad during a one-day visit to Damascus. Mottaki, who also took advantage of the visit to hold a series of talks with leaders of terror groups in the Syrian capital, promised the support of the two states for the armed struggle against Israel.
The Iranian news agency Mehr reported that the two leaders discussed Israeli action in the West Bank and Gaza Strip and the relations between Tehran and Damascus, which the Iranian foreign minister described as "strategic, close, long-term and deep." Mottaki even passed on warm greetings to Assad from Ahmadinejad, and asserted that support from Iran and Syria for those opposing Israel is a "moral and human duty."
At the end of the meeting, he spoke of the ongoing "crimes of the Zionist regime" against Palestinians in the West Bank.
Later, the Iranian foreign minister met Islamic Jihad Secretary General Ramadan Abdullah Salah, and called on the Palestinians to continue their struggle in Israel, which he defined as a "legal and religious right against the Zionist occupier." He also met with the assistant to Hezbollah's secretary-general, Hajj Hussein Khalil, and discussed political developments in Lebanon.
