Iran criticizes Arab League’s support for Syrian opposition
By Sara Rajabova
Iran has criticized the Arab League's support for the Syrian opposition.
Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister for Arab and African Affairs, Hossein Amir-Abdollahian, stated that the country condemns the Arab League's recent move to hand Syria's seat to a small group, which does not represent the Syrian people.
"It is a wrong decision to support the Syrian opposition with weapons by any means, and will cause big problems. It will cause problems for the Syrian people," Amir-Abdollahian said after a meeting with Arab League (AL) Secretary General Nabil al-Arabi in Cairo on Sunday, Press TV reported.
"How can the opposition represent all of Syria at the summit of the Arab League when they are so few in number?" he asked.
On March 26, the Arab League handed Syria's seat to the opposition, known as the National Coalition, at a two-day summit held in the Qatari capital Doha.
The Arab League also authorized its members to send all the means of what it called self-defense, including weapons, to militants fighting against the government of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.
Syria has been experiencing unrest since March 2011, and many people have been killed in the violence.
Syrian government and opposition blame each other for the deadly clashes.
Amir-Abdollahian, who was on an official visit to Cairo, also mulled the ongoing unrest in the crisis-hit Arab country in a two-hour meeting behind closed doors with UN-Arab League Special Representative for Syria Lakhdar Brahimi.
At the meeting, Amir-Abdollahian described the violence in Syria as foreign-sponsored and reaffirmed Iran's support for a political solution to the crisis.
Brahimi, for his part, expressed his opposition to any military intervention in Syria, saying the crisis must be resolved through talks between the Syrian opposition and the government.
Damascus says that the chaos is being orchestrated from outside the country, and there are reports that a very large number of the militants fighting in the country are foreign nationals.
The Syrian government believes the West and its regional allies, including Qatar, Saudi Arabia and Turkey, are supporting the armed groups.