Iran vows 'unlimited' support for Syria

A ranking Iranian lawmaker said here on Thursday that Iran's support for Syria is "unlimited", countering rumours of a rift between the two allies in battling a four-year insurgency in Syria.

"We have come here to stress that our support to Syria is constant and permanent and we are proud of this support," Alaedin Boroujerdi, head of the Iranian parliament's national security and foreign policy committee, told a press conference at the end of his three-day visit to Syria.

"We don't see any limits to the cooperation with Syria and rendering help to it because the front of resistance is one unified entity. We have undertaken the support under all circumstances and despite all of the sanctions imposed on us," Xinhua news agency quoted him as saying.

"We will definitely continue to do so in the future."

He said Syria was an important party in the axis of resistance, in reference to Iran, Syria and Hezbollah.

In an apparent jab at Gulf countries that support radical rebels, the Iranian official said "unfortunately, some of the region's countries have become a tool to implement the bids of the United States".

Singling out Saudi Arabia for criticism over its strikes in Yemen, Boroujerdi said Riyadh "has become the main source of criminality and terrorism in the region".

Regarding recent reports on US training of Syrian rebels in Jordan, Boroujerdi said it uncovered Washington's "ugly face of supporting terrorism", describing it as "a strategic mistake the US and its western allies are committing".

"They work on sending thousands of people to Syria to join the terrorists and today we see that the smoke of such negative conduct is blinding them," Boroujerdi said.

He also accused Turkey of supporting militants fighting in Syria.

Meanwhile, the Iranian official repeated a statement he made earlier that the supreme leader of Iran, Ali Khamenei, had given directives that Iran's nuclear talks with the West did not include talks about regional issues, such as the Syrian or Yemeni crises.

He added that the main reason behind Khamenei's orders that the negotiations with the West be confined to the nuclear issue only was due to the "fundamental differences" between Iran and the US regarding the crises in the region.