Syria observes an increase in the shipment of arms and financial support to the fighting insurgents against the Assad government. Damascus accuses Turkey of being behind the rearmament of the terrorists.
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Originally appeared at DWN, translated by Karin exclusively for SouthFront
Opponents of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad have significantly boosted their support for the insurgents by his words. They have received more weapons and financial aid since the Syrian army began its offensive, Assad told official media on Sunday. The remarks came during an interview with the Iranian politician Ali Akbar Welajati, an adviser to the supreme political and religious leader of Iran, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. Fighting alongside the Syrian army are the Russian Air Force, Iranian soldiers and fighters of the Lebanese Shiite movement Hezbollah.
On Saturday the Syrian army had declared that Turkey had increased their supplies of weapons, ammunition and equipment to “the terrorists in Syria”.
Iran would continue its support of Syria because the fight against terrorism is crucial for the region and the world , was Welajati quoted by the media. Assad reportedly explained, a defeat of the rebels was the prerequisite for the success of a political solution, about which the Syrians would then decide.
German Federal Defense Minister Ursula von der Leyen (CDU) maintains an alliance with the Syrian government army in the future for conceivable. “There are parts of the troops in Syria, which are very well (…) “and can be used for it”, the minister answered on Sunday evening in the ZDF program “Berlin direkt” to the question of whether the army could be an ally in the international fight against jihadists group Islamic State (IS). Von der Leyen referred to the training of local troops in Iraq.
Following the initiation of a political transition process in Syria the situation should be reassessed. There will be no future with President Bashar al-Assad, “that’s for sure,” said von der Leyen. But it is right, “to talk about the Syrian troops, when it is clear, when this transition phase has begun, what will happen to Assad.”
French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius had brought up on Friday for the first time a possible cooperation with the Syrian government forces against the IS-militia. An involvement of Syrian forces in anti-IS-fight was imaginable as “part of a political transition”, Fabius said.