MOSCOW (Dispatches) – Armed forces of Russia, Iran and Syria are the only ones conducting lawful military operations to defeat terrorism in Syria, Iran's Minister of Defense Hussein Dehqan said here on Wednesday.
"It is important to see that in Syria, only the Russian Federation, Iran and the legitimate government of the people of Syria are fully engaged in the legitimate fight of terror," he said during the Moscow Conference on International Security.
He added that policies presented by the United States in Syria were "a new form of global fascism."
On April 7, the United States launched 59 Tomahawk cruise missiles at the Syrian military airfield in Shayrat. U.S. President Donald Trump said that the attack was a response to the alleged chemical weapon use in Syria's Idlib province on April 4, which resulted in the death of over 80 people, an incident which Washington blames on the Syrian government.
Syria has denied the government’s involvement in the Idlib incident, saying it had never nor would it ever use chemical weapons on either civilians or terrorists operating in the country.
The Russian Defense Ministry said on April 5 that the airstrike near Khan Shaykhun by the Syrian air force hit a terrorist warehouse that stored chemical weapons slated for delivery to Iraq, and called on the UN Security Council to launch a proper investigation into the incident.
Russian President Vladimir Putin said on April 6 that groundless accusations in the chemical weapons incident in Syria's Idlib were unacceptable before the investigation into the matter had been carried out while Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov on Saturday criticized the U.S. missile attack as a violation of the international law.
Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei described the U.S. missile strike against the Syrian airfield as a strategic mistake.
Dehqan said the missile raid was against all international regulations.
He further highlighted Washington’s unconstructive role in the Middle East, saying the U.S. is trying to implement a new doctrine by "commercializing security.”
Pointing out to factors contributing to the current local and international imbalance and violence, Dehqan cited Trump’s volatility in word, attitude and decision-making as well as the U.S., Israel, Britain, and Saudi Arabia supporting and reinforcing Takfiri terrorist groups against regional governments.
He also warned that neither the U.S. nor any other country can attain its "political and expansionist” goals by backing war and terrorism.
Unless terrorism is vanquished in Syria and Iraq -- which hold the largest concentrations of Takfiris -- the terrorists would soon be targeting all their backers, including the U.S., Europe, Saudi Arabia, and Turkey "with the most violent acts,” he further cautioned.
Highlighting that the global security problems have emanated from the U.S. efforts to impose "a unilateral order,” Dehqan said the only way out of the situation was to bring about a multipolar international establishment, which negated both imperialism and any type of regional or global hegemony.
The Russian foreign minister also called for a professional and transparent investigation into the Idlib chemical incident.
"Provocations like those that occurred in Khan Shaykhoun on April 4 require a professional investigation under the auspices of the OPCW, on a geographically balanced basis, and such an investigation should be open and transparent," Lavrov said.
Meanwhile, Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu told the Moscow conference that the U.S. missile strike was a gross violation of international law.
"In addition, Washington’s actions have created a threat to the lives of our soldiers, who are in Syria fighting terrorism,” Shoigu said.