Iran rejects claims of involvement in Syria violence

Iran on Monday rejected media reports accusing the Islamic Republic of involvement in the violence in Alawite areas of Syria, which has left hundreds of civilians dead.

Fighting erupted on Thursday between Syria’s new security forces and loyalists of the former government of toppled president Bashar al-Assad, a long-time Tehran ally.

War monitor the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said on Monday that 973 civilians have been killed in the violence in the coastal heartland of the country’s Alawite minority.

The fighting has also killed hundreds of members of the security forces and pro-al-Assad fighters, according to the Observatory, which has reported the overall death toll at more than 1,300.

In a speech on Sunday, Syria’s President Ahmed al-Sharaa said the violence was a result of “attempts by the remnants of the toppled regime and foreign parties behind them to create renewed sedition and pull our country into civil war.”

Iran’s foreign ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baqaei roundly rejected the accusation in his weekly press briefing on Monday.

“This accusation is completely ridiculous and rejected, and we think that pointing the finger of accusation at Iran and Iran’s friends is wrongly addressed, a deviant trend, and a hundred percent misleading,” he said.

Baqaei said there was “no justification” for attacks on minorities in Syria, including Alawites, the community to which the toppled al-Assad belongs.

“There is no justification for the attacks on parts of the Alawite, Christian, Druze and other minorities, which have truly wounded the emotions and conscience of both the countries of the region and internationally,” he said.

Al-Assad fled Syria in December for Moscow as rebel forces entered Damascus after a lightning offensive led by the group “Hayat Tahrir al-Sham” (HTS).

Tehran helped to prop up al-Assad during the country’s long civil war, and provided him with military advisers.

In an interview with AFP on Friday, Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said Tehran has remained “an observer” of the situation in Syria since the takeover by HTS.

“We have no relationship with the cu

AFP