'Ties between Iran and Syria must not be cut off'

GVF — In a recent statement addressed to the "People of Iran", the Supreme Council for the Leadership of the Syrian Revolution has said the Iranian regime’s stance towards the crackdowns in Syrian should not entail the severing of ties between the people of Iran and Syria.

The United Nations has estimated that since the eruption of anti-regime protests in Syria seven months ago, at least 2600 civilians have been killed across the country, the majority of them protesters and local residents shot with live ammunition by the security forces and army. Thousands more have been detained or held incommunicado at unknown locations and under severe torture. Over a hundred people have reportedly died in detention in highly suspicious circumstances.

Despite the extensive support for the Syrian uprising among ordinary Iranians including Green Movement supporters, the regime in Tehran has chosen to side with the Bashar Assad’s regime in its brutal crackdown on dissidents.

“We hope that the [Iranian] government, which claims to support resistance movements and to carry on the Iranian Revolution’s stance against injustice, does not continue its support for an oppressive regime whose brutality and tyranny have been proven to the entire world,” said the statement issued on 29 September by the Council’s politburo.

“We stress on maintaining respect and friendly ties with the Muslim people of Iran, and underline that Iranian government’s position in supporting the Assad regime must not lead to the severing of ties between the two Muslim nations.”

The statement adds that Syrians “call on all the Muslim nation of Iran from all walks of life to stand by the oppressed people of Syria against Assad’s dictatorship, just as the free people of Syria and all free peoples stood by them when they faced the tyranny of the Shah in a period of oppression and persecution.”