Ammon News - By Al Arabiya with agencies


Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu urged Tehran on Tuesday to “send a clear message” to Syria’s embattled regime to stop the violence against its own people.

“Instead of criticizing the (Patriot) system, Iran should say stop to the Syrian regime that has been continuously oppressing its own people and provoking Turkey through border violations,” AFP reported Davutoglu as saying. “It is time to send clear messages to the Syrian regime.”

Iran is still resilient in its support to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad regime. Like Russia, Iran has been a staunch ally of Assad throughout the 21-month uprising against his rule.

On Tuesday, Iran’s Deputy Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian said he does not believe that Assad and his government are about to fall.

Asked after talks in Moscow about Western suggestions that Assad and his government might soon be ousted, he told Reuters through a translator: “We have serious doubts about that. The Syrian army and the state machine are working smoothly.”

The minister dismissed suggestions that Moscow had altered its stance on Syria, despite remarks by a senior Russian diplomat last week acknowledging that Assad’s opponents could win the conflict.

“During our talks with our Russian partners, we have found there has been no change in the Russian position on Syria,” he told a news conference.

Russia has shielded Assad’s government from U.N. Security Council censure and sanctions, resisting Western pressure to join efforts to push him from power.