Iran says to keep 'military advisers' in Syria

TEHRAN: Iran said on Monday that it plans to keep military advisers in Syria after its ally’s second city Aleppo was overrun by rebels in a surprise offensive.

The Kremlin also said Monday that it continued to support Syrian President Bashar al-Assad after rebels last week wrested swathes of territory from government control.

Iran has backed President Bashar al-Assad since Syria’s civil war broke out in 2011, says it only deploys military advisers in the country at the invitation of Damascus.

“We entered Syria many years ago at the official invitation of the Syrian government, when the Syrian people faced the threat of terrorism,” said foreign ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baqaeil.

“Our military advisers were present in Syria, and they are still present” and would remain in the country “in accordance with the wishes” of its government, he told a news conference in Tehran.

Baqaeil did not specify whether or not Iran would be increasing its forces in Syria in the wake of the lightning rebel offensive.

His remarks come a day after Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi met with Assad in Damascus to show support for the Syrian president.

Aleppo fell to an Islamist-dominated rebel alliance over the course of the past week, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights war monitor.

The Kremlin said that it continued to support Syrian President Bashar al-Assad after jihadists attack.

“We of course continue to support Bashar al-Assad and we continue contacts at the appropriate levels, we are analysing the situation,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told journalists, adding that Russia would draw up a “position on what is necessary to stabilise the situation”.