By: Kayhan Int’l Staff Writer

The western media is rife with rumours regarding the recent upgrading of the traditional Iran-Syria defence ties for bolstering Damascus’ air power against terrorism of all kinds, including the takfiri threats and the illegal foreign military presence in parts of the country.
It was a routine reaffirmation of the close ties the two Muslim countries have enjoyed over the past four decades since the victory of the Islamic Revolution in Iran, and Syria’s strategic decision to close the Iraqi oil pipeline to its Banias port on the Mediterranean during the 8-year war the US had imposed on the Islamic Republic through the repressive Ba’th minority regime of Baghdad.
It was yet another proof that the Islamic Republic of Iran will always stand beside Syria and the fraternal Syrian people to protect their Islamic dignity, national sovereignty, and territorial integrity, at a time when the western-backed terrorists have slaughtered almost half a million men, women, and children over the past nine years, in addition to making millions of other Syrians homeless.
The latest agreement signed in Damascus by Chief of Staff of the Iranian Armed Forces, Major-General Mohammad Hussein Baqeri, and Syrian Defence Minister Ali Abdullah Ayyoub, is continuation of the comprehensive military cooperation inked way back on 16th June 2006 in Tehran by the then defence ministers of the two countries – Iran’s Mustafa Najjar and Syria’s Hassan Turkmani (the latter martyred in 2012 by terrorists on the payroll of the US, Saudi Arabia, and Israel.
President Bashar al-Assad confirmed this point when he said during discussions with Maj.-Gen. Baqeri yesterday: "This agreement reflects the strategic level of relations between Iran and Syria and is the outcome of years of common measures and cooperation in the fight against terrorism in Syria.”     
He is absolutely right. If not for the Islamic Republic’s strategic advisory role in Syria, the macabrely murderous terrorists would have long fragmented the country into Zionist bases for expansion southwards towards Iraq and the Persian Gulf.
This is the reason the frustrated Zionist entity, having failed to balkanize Syria through the terrorists, indulges in frequent air and missile attacks, which from now on will certainly be thwarted with the boosting of Syria’s air defences, especially since Iran has significantly strengthened the large Syrian military base at Latakia airport.
The Americans are also alarmed at the failure of their own terrorist policies, and know fully well that their forces have no place in a resurgent Syria, once the Syrian national army after completing the mopping up operations in Idlib, turns towards the eastern Euphrates region and its oilfields to oust the uninvited US forces.
On the Iraqi border, the American occupied enclave of at-Tanf is also waiting for liberation, as well as the Golan Heights which the Israeli occupiers claim to have annexed in violation of the UN Security Council resolution.  
Syria is an integral part of the Resistance Front, and a vital link connecting post Ba’thist Iraq to Lebanon and Occupied Palestine. Hence the Islamic Republic of Iran considers Syria’s security as its own security, and Damascus’ defence capabilities to be those of Tehran.
Currently, Iran is involved in implementing several industrial projects in Syria, including cement factories, car assembly lines, power plants, and silo construction. Iran also plans to set up a joint Iranian–Syrian bank in the future.
In view of these extensive multilateral ties, it is important for Iran and Syria to boost their defence cooperation in the face of Zionist-takfiri threats, at a time when CENTCOM terrorists are roaming free in the region and refusing to leave Iraq despite the demands of the Iraqi people for closure of all American bases.