West provokes tensions in Syria

The West aims to deviate mass opinion from world problems by provoking tensions in Syria, Iranian Ambassador to Syria Reza Sajjadi said on Wednesday. He made the remark in an interview with inforussia website. The official underscored that the western approach toward Syrian unrests is paradoxical. He referred to the killing of peoples in Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan by US soldiers as well as the daily killing of defenseless Lebanese and Palestinian people by Zionist regime and asked the West to review its paradoxical approach. “Iran and Lebanon’s Hezbollah are the major goals of the West's pressures on Damascus,” Sajjadi continued. “Some Arab countries of the region are interfering in Syria to hide their internal problems,” the official added. “Arab countries are heedless of the affects of the Syrian unrests on regional security; it is surprising that Persian Gulf Arab countries which call for democracy in Syria are heedless of basic democratic principles for their own nations; these countries are really concerned about the uprising of their own people,” Iranian envoy to Moscow underlined. The official stated that Iran doesn’t aim to interfere in Arab country’s internal affairs and wants friendly relations with its neighbors. “Intensification of unrests in Syria will intensify crisis in countries like Iraq, Libya, Lebanon and Afghanistan,” he added. Sajadi rejected the Zionist regime's accusations about Iran’s involvement in recent terrorist operations against Israeli citizens around the world, adding that Zionists aim to deviate the world public opinion from their crimes against Iranian nuclear scientists. Answering a question about Tehran-Baku relations, the official said that Iran has friendly relations with Azerbaijan Republic but they should beware of the divisive plots of Zionist regime. 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 Zionist regime plots could spark some new unrests in certain parts of the country. Since the beginning of 2011, the Muslim world has witnessed popular uprisings and revolutions similar to what happened in Iran in 1979. Tunisia saw the overthrow of Zine El Abidine Ben Ali in a popular revolution in January, which was soon followed by a revolution which toppled Hosni Mubarak in Egypt in February. Bahrain, Jordan, Kuwait, Libya, Saudi Arabia and Yemen have since been the scene of protests against their totalitarian rulers, who have resorted to brutal crackdown on demonstrations to silence their critics. Bahrain, however, have experienced the deadliest clashes. Anti-government protesters have been holding peaceful demonstrations across Bahrain since mid-February, calling for an end to the Al Khalifa dynasty's over-40-year rule. Violence against the defenseless people escalated after a Saudi-led conglomerate of police, security and military forces from the Persian Gulf Cooperation Council (PGCC) member states - Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, the United Arab Emirates, Oman and Qatar - were dispatched to the tiny Persian Gulf kingdom on March 13 to help Manama crack down on peaceful protestors. A hitman on a motorbike fixed a suspected magnetic bomb on an Israeli embassy car in the Indian capital recently. Separately, the Georgian interior ministry confirmed that police in the capital Tbilisi had defused an explosive device found in the car of an Israeli embassy employee. The embassy car exploded in a ball of flames in central New Delhi, injuring a 42-year-old female embassy employee and her Indian driver who was pulled from the wreckage by bystanders, police and witnesses said. Iran has an embassy in Baku and a consulate-general in the automonous republic of Nakhichevan. Azerbaijan has an embassy in Tehran and a consulate-general in Tabriz. Iran and Azerbaijan have had diplomatic relations since the latter's independence from the former Soviet Union. The two countries have a majority Shia population and share many cultural commonalties. The Islamic Republic of Iran has made extensive mediation efforts to settle the dispute between Armenia and Azerbaijan over Karabakh.