Iran says US air strikes in Syria encourage terrorism

Iran’s top security official, Ali Shamkhani, said on Saturday that US air strikes against Iran-backed militias in eastern Syria encourage terrorism in the region. “America’s recent action strengthens and expands the activities of the terrorist Daesh (Islamic State) in the region,” Shamkhani, the Secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security council, said  to visiting Iraqi Foreign Minister Fuad Hussein. “The attack on anti-terrorist resistance forces is the beginning of a new round of organized terrorism,” he said. Shamkhani said “we will confront the US plan to revive terrorism in the region”.

Washington said the strikes on positions of the Kataib Hezbollah (KH) paramilitary group along the Iraq border were in response to rocket attacks against US targets in Iraq. The air strikes targeted militia sites on the Syrian side of the Iraqi-Syrian frontier, where groups backed by Iran control an important crossing for weapons, personnel and goods.Washington and Tehran are seeking maximum leverage in attempts to save Iran’s nuclear deal reached with world powers in 2015 but abandoned in 2018 by then-President Donald Trump, after which regional tensions soared.