Senior Iranian lawmaker urges south Arabia to change position on Syria

Chairman of the Iranian parliament's National Security and Foreign Policy Commission Alaeddin Boroujerdi called on Saudi Arabia to change its position on Syria and stop inviting foreigners to war on a Muslim country. "We hope that Saudi Arabia's stance which entails inviting foreigners to attack an Islamic country of the region will change," Boroujerdi said during a meeting with former Lebanese Prime Minister Najib Mikati in Beirut on Tuesday. He underlined Iran's concern over the possibility of a Washington-led western aggression against Syria, and said, "We hope that the US intellectuals will prevent the attack on Syria since such an attack will inflame the entire region." Boroujerdi expressed pleasure in the world people's increased knowledge of the dire consequences of waging war on Syria, and said the number of war advocates is decreasing. Tensions rose higher in the region after US rushed to dispatch its warships toward Syria, threatening to bomb several areas in the country, based on conflicting reports of an alleged chemical attack in the country. The US-backed militants posted pictures and videos of an alleged chemical attack two weeks ago which they claimed the Syrian army was responsible for it. The Syrian government, which had already called for UN action against several cases of chemical attacks by anti-Syria militants in the country, rejected the claims as baseless and paved the way for a visiting UN team of inspectors to investigate the story. Syria says the attack was actually carried out by the foreign-backed militants to open way for their western and regional supporters to attack Syria. Despite the killing of at least 100,000 people in the massive insurgency in Syria, the US is intent on joining the conflict.