Velayati: Assad is Iran’s Redline

Top adviser to Iran's Supreme Leader, Ali Akbar Velayati, said the future of Syria’s President Bashar Assad could only be determined by the Syrian people and this was a ‘red line’ for Tehran.

“Assad is the Islamic Republic of Iran's red line because he was elected president by the Syrian people,” said Ali Akbar Velayati, the top foreign policy adviser to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

“The Syrian people must decide their own fate, and nobody outside Syria's borders can choose for the Syrian people,” he added.

Noting the necessity of Iran-Russia ties to be stable and long-term, Velayati pointed to gravity of the situation in Syria and added “It is not far from expectation that the commander of IRGC Quds forces Major. Gen. Qassem Soleimani pays a visit to Russia to hold talks with the country’s officials; Syrian crisis is not predicted to be solved in a short period of time.”

About Russia joining the axis of resistance, Velayati said “ISIL is spreading toward Russia and West Asia and if Russia fails to confront the terrorist group it will have to defend its own country in near future.”

Velayati indicated that a minor international war is taking place in Syria in which all the world powers are participating and small regional countries are playing a more significant role in the Syrian war rather than grand nations, according to Mehr news agency.

He added that the US bombards ISIL strongholds only when the group crosses the redlines it has specified; “The terrorist group has activities in regions of oil resources without any problem, US never bombs such regions.”

He underlined that what US is looking for is not a grand Middle East, but a shattered one.