A member of Iranian parliament said Monday that Israel would suffer as a result of any U.S.-led attack on Syria, but also denied that the U.S. was capable of such a strike.
Iran’s state-run Fars News Agency quoted Hossein Sheikholeslam, the director general of the Iranian parliament’s International Affairs bureau, as saying that “no military attack will be waged against Syria.”
He went on to say that “if such an incident takes place, which is impossible, the Zionist regime will be the first victim of a military attack on Syria,” and warned that Syria has the capability to “heavily attack and raze the occupied territories.”
Further, Mohammed Esmayeeli, a member of the Iranian parliament’s National Security and Foreign Policy Commission, also argued that the U.S. is incapable of hitting Syria. If the United States attacks the Iranian ally, it ”will not achieve its desirable and needed results,” Fars quotes him as saying. “The U.S. as well as the Western and Arab states and certain regional countries are beating on the drums of war,” Esmayeeli said, “but they should know that this is not to their benefit.” Mohammad Reza Naqdi, the commander of the country’s Basij paramilitary force, said that the Americans are “incapable of starting a new war in the region, because of their lacking economic capabilities and their lack of morale.”
However, Iran’s new president, Hassan Rowhani, condemned on Twitter the use of chemical weapons in Syria, though without blaming their use on the Syrian government specifically.
“Iran gives notice to international community to use all its might to prevent use of chemical weapons anywhere in the world, esp. in #Syria,” Rowhani tweeted.
The Iranians aren’t the only ones to threaten Israel over the possibility of Western intervention. Khalaf Muftah, a senior Baath Party official and former Syrian assistant information minister, said yesterday in a radio interview that if the United States were to attack, Syria would consider Israel to be “behind the aggression” and the country ”will therefore come under fire.”