Iran Urges Militants to Give Up 'Syria-Without-Assad' Condition

Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif called on supporters of terrorist groups in Syria to stop their attempts to overthrow the country's legal president, and expressed regret that their stubborn insistence on toppling President Assad has “blocked peace and tranquility” in the country.

"Those who have set a condition about the Syrian president in the past two years should be blamed for the continued war and they should be held accountable for the bloodshed of the past few years," Zarif said during a joint press conference with his Spanish counterpart Jose Manuel Garcia-Margallo in Tehran on Monday.

Stressing that it was up to the Syrian people to choose their  country's president, he called on the backers of the terrorist groups to give up their “selfish moves and short-term benefits that they pursue at the expense of the Syrian people,” and let the restoration of peace and reconciliation happen in Syria, Iran’s Fars news agency reported on Monday.

Meanwhile, a senior Syrian lawmaker dismissed Western media reports about the presence of Russian troops in Syria as part of the psychological warfare to weaken the morale of the Arab country's soldiers.

"Everyone in Syria, even the military men, is astounded by the false and baseless news on the presence of Russian troops in their country," Jamal Rabe'a told FNA on Monday.

Last week, a Syrian military source denied the arrival of the Russian Air Force in the provincial capital of the Lattakia Governorate, despite numerous reports from Israeli and Syrian opposition media outlets.

Last month, Russia agreed to boost its military aid by providing satellite imagery to the Syrian armed forces, while also increasing the level of military intelligence it shares with Syria’s central military command.