Syrian President Bashar al-Assad met Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, a close ally, in Tehran on Thursday to offer condolences for the death of President Ebrahim Raisi, Iran's Student News Network (SNN) reported.
Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei meets with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, in Tehran, Iran May 30, 2024. Office of the Iranian Supreme Leader/WANA (West Asia News Agency) via Reuters
Syrian President Bashar al-Assad met Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, a close ally, in Tehran on Thursday to offer condolences for the death of President Ebrahim Raisi, Iran's Student News Network (SNN) reported.
Raisi died when his helicopter crashed on May 19 near the Azerbaijan border.
Khamenei and Assad met last in 2022 in Tehran, during which both sides called for stronger relations.
On Thursday, Assad and Khamenei said ties were strong, according to a statement by the Syrian presidency.
Assad was able to turn the tide of Syria's civil war, which erupted from mass pro-democracy demonstrations in 2011, with crucial help from Iran's proxy militias and Russia's military intervention in 2015.
Israel, whose existence is not recognised by the Islamic Republic, has mounted frequent attacks on what it has described as Iranian targets in Syria, where Tehran-backed forces including Lebanon's Hezbollah militia have deployed over the past decade to support Assad in Syria's war.
(Reporting by Elwely Elwelly; editing by Gareth Jones and Mark Heinrich)
Reporting by Elwely Elwelly
Iran's top negotiator and its foreign minister were in Doha for talks with Qatar's prime minister on a potential deal with the U.S. to end the three-month-old war, an official briefed on the visit said on Monday, after Washington and Tehran played down hopes for an imminent breakthrough.
Iran's foreign ministry spokesperson said on Monday that conclusions have been reached on many topics discussed in a potential 14-point memorandum of understanding, but this does not mean a deal to end the Middle East war is imminent.
In a post published Monday on Truth Social, President Donald Trump issued what amounts to a sweeping diplomatic ultimatum to the Arab and Muslim world: normalise with Israel through the Abraham Accords, or forfeit any role in the Iran agreement he is working to finalise.
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