Iranian Minister Rejects Media Report on Iran's Nuclear Assistance to Syria

The Iranian Foreign Minister dismissed an alleged report by the German weekly, Der Spiegel, that Iran is helping Syria build nuclear weapons.

MOSCOW, January 11 (Sputnik) — In a joint press conference in Tehran on Sunday, Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif dismissed an alleged report by the German weekly Der Spiegel as "ridiculous.” The report claims that Iran is helping Syria build nuclear weapons, reports FARS agency.

"The magazine's allegation is one of the attempts made by those circles whose life has been based on violence and fear to cloud the international community with illusion and create imaginary concerns about the Islamic Republic, and this is a ridiculous claim," Zarif said in a conference with his Cypriot counterpart Ioannis Kasoulides.

The minister also emphasized Iran's policy of opposition to the acquisition of nuclear weapons and the fatwa issued by the leader Ayatollah Seyed Ali Khamenei that has placed a strong religious ban on the acquisition, possession and use of atomic bombs, and said, "We believe that all nuclear weapons should be dismantled," reports FARS.

In a report by Der Spiegel earlier this week, it was claimed that Syrian President Bashar Assad's government, with the help of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) and the Lebanese resistance group Hezbollah, is building a nuclear weapon.

The report claimed that the key intelligence for the discovery of a new nuclear site in Syria came from radio communications seized by a network of spies. Der Spiegel did not disclose the source of the espionage report, but usually such claims are given out by the Israelis, as reported by FARS.