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Assad meets Iran supreme leader's adviser

Xinhua, May 19, 2015 Adjust font size:

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad met here Tuesday with a senior aide to Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, state news agency SANA reported.

SANA did not disclose the contents of the discussion between Assad and Ali Akbar Velayati, who advises Khamenei on foreign affairs.

Pro-government al-Watan newspaper said the visit of Velayati, who arrived on Tuesday, was a show of Tehran's support for Damascus and a move to counter recent rumors about a rift between the allies amid a four-year insurgency in Syria.

Citing what it described as diplomatic sources, al-Watan said the Iranian official holds a "clear message of support " from Khamenei.

Velayati's visit comes less than a week after Alaeddin Boroujerdi, chairman of the Iranian parliament's national security commission, met Assad to stress Tehran's "unlimited" and "permanent" support to the Syrian government.

The visit also coincides with a visit by Rostam Qasemi, chairman of Iranian-Syrian Economic Relations Development Committee, who met with Assad on Monday and discussed ways to boost economic ties between the two countries. Endit