DAMASCUS, 15 November 2005 — Iran yesterday voiced strong support for Syria in its standoff with the West over a UN inquiry into the assassination of former Lebanese Premier Rafik Hariri as its foreign minister made his first official visit to Damascus.
“We discussed the matter of Hariri’s murder. Syrian officials are handling this issue in a satisfactory way,” Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki told reporters after talks with President Bashar Assad and Foreign Minister Farouk Shara.
“We want the UN commission of inquiry to continue its work on a legal basis and not politicize the case,” he said.
The Iranian minister hit out at US-led accusations that Syria was withholding its cooperation, saying they were one of a number of “suspect maneuverings by the United States in the region”.
“The United States is pursuing its own expansionist, hegemonic goals in several parts of the region,” he charged.
On Iraq, Mottaki said he had agreed with Shara that “the political process must continue and the Iraqi people be allowed to decide their own destiny”.
“We discussed the various options facing Iraq’s neighbors and we’re going to study them in the most serious way and support everything that’s in the interests of the Iraqi people,” he said.
— Additional input from agencies
