By G. D. Pavlopoulos
The head of international relations for Iranian supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei told “N” this week that Tehran is against the declaration of an autonomous Kurdish territory in the north of Syria, while emphasizing that an independent Kurdish state in the Middle East is not a viable entity.
Ahmad Bahmani spoke to Greek reporters during a briefing in the Iranian capital.
The top Iranian spokesman added that any prospective independent Kurdish state created from land in Turkey, Iraq, Syria and Iran, which host significant numbers of Kurds, would be land-locked and bedevilled by internal strife.
“In Iranian Kurdistan we have mediated between the positions of (Masoud) Barzani and (Jalal) Talabani. If Iran were to withdraw from the middle, they (the two Kurdish leaders) would again clash,” he said, adding that a declaration of autonomy by the Kurds of northern Syria merely facilitates “a plan by foreign powers.”
“They (foreign powers) want to divide Syria between Arab Sunni Muslims, Arab Shiite Muslims and Kurds.”
Bahmani also touched on Tehran’s standing alliance with Bashar Al-Assad and the latter’s government in war-ravaged Syria. Iran is one of the Syrian regime’s strongest backers, with international press reports pointing to Iranian volunteers on the battlefields.
“Bashar Al-Assad is the only personality at this time that can govern Syria, and everyone knows this, including the United States and Saudi Arabia,” the close associate to Iran’s supreme leader said.
He also dismissed the ongoing peace process in Geneva, reminding that the Syrian opposition delegation is called the “Riyadh group”.
