| Assad wins Iran support, vows to crush rebellion |
DAMASCUS Syrian President Bashar Al Assad vowed on Tuesday to crush the 17-month rebellion against him and to cleanse the country of “terrorists,” as his troops engaged rebels in key battleground city Aleppo even as Assad won a pledge of support from regional ally Iran.
“The Syrian people and their government are determined to purge the country of terrorists and to fight the terrorists without respite,” he was quoted by state news agency Sana as telling visiting senior Iranian envoy Saeed Jalili.
Assad appeared earlier on television for the first time in more than two weeks in his meeting with Jalili.
US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, without naming Iran or other powers, warned against a descent into “sectarian warfare” and said Washington would not tolerate “sending in proxies or terrorist fighters” to “exploit” Syria’s conflict.
Teheran, which has voiced growing criticism of support by the US States, Turkey, Saudi Arabia and Qatar for the rebels, also sent its foreign minister to Ankara and a letter to Washington holding them responsible for the fate of 48 kidnapped Iranians.
Iranian state media quoted Jalili as saying Teheran “believes in national dialogue between all domestic groups to be the solution, and believes foreign solutions are not helpful.”
Jalili said Iran would not let its close partnership with the Syrian leadership to be shaken by the uprising or external foes.
“Iran will not allow the axis of resistance, of which it considers Syria to be an essential part, to be broken in any way,” he told Syrian television.
On a visit to Turkey, Iranian Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi said he wanted to work with Ankara to resolve the crisis.
In Aleppo, rebels trying to fight off an army offensive said they were running low on ammunition as Assad’s forces tried to encircle their stronghold in the southern approaches to the city.
A fighter jet pounded targets in the eastern districts of Aleppo and shelling could be heard in the early morning, an activist said. “Two families, about 14 people in total, were believed killed when a shell hit their home and it collapsed this morning,” the activist said. The house was one street away from a school being used as a base by rebels, he said.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said anti-regime gunmen killed 16 civilians, mostly Alawites and Christians, in an attack on a housing compound for power company employees near Homs.
In Geneva, the World Health Organisation said Syrians urgently need life-saving medicines, and the World Food Programme said 1.5 million people in rural areas will need food aid in the next three to six months.
Agencies
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