Iran's Deputy FM voices support for Syria on Arab league plan

Iran's Deputy Foreign Minister Hossein Amir Abdollahian said Tehran supports Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's decision to start implementing an Arab League plan. But Tehran suggested it was not entirely happy with the pressure Arab states had brought to bear on Damascus, with President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad saying their action towards Syria was "like a joke". Amir Abdollahian told the Arabic language television network Al-Alam that "Iran's official stance regarding Syria and the Arab League plan is that whatever Bashar al-Assad deems as acceptable, we would approve of and accept." He added that the Arab League plan "contains many of the points Iran was also looking at," even if not all concerns were addressed. Ahmadinejad, though, criticized Arab nations for the way they had been treating Syria. "Certain regional countries carry out acts which Iran considers to be more like a joke," Ahmadinejad said. "Some regional countries, which have never held an election, have come together and pass resolutions against another country saying 'Why don't you hold an election'?" he said. Syria on Monday signed an agreement to allow foreign observers in to monitor the implementation of the Arab League plan designed to halt violence sparked by terrorist groups in the country. Syria has been experiencing unrest since mid-March with organized attacks by well-armed gangs against Syrian police forces and border guards being reported across the country. Hundreds of people, including members of the security forces, have been killed, when some protest rallies turned into armed clashes. The government blames outlaws, saboteurs, and armed terrorist groups for the deaths, stressing that the unrest is being orchestrated from abroad. In October, calm was eventually restored in the Arab state after President Bashar al-Assad started a reform initiative in the country, but the US and Israeli plots could spark some new unrests in certain parts of the country.