UN: Accusations Fly Over Who’s Arming Syrian Conflict

As the United States, Britain, France and Germany accused Iran at the UN Security Council of providing arms to the Syrian government, Beshar Assad gave an interview to the Egyptian daily Al-Ahram in which he severely attacked Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Turkey for arming the Syrian opposition forces.

The four Western powers expressed their concern about Iran’s nuclear program on Thursday, September 20, at the UN Security Council, and the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations expressed dissatisfaction with the course of Iran’s nuclear activities.

Susan Rice said that according to the UN resolution, no arms should be entering Syria, and the British ambassador to the U.S. stressed that Iran should not be allowed to deliver arms to Syria.

Western countries accuse Iran of delivering arms to the Beshar Assad regime, and recently the Iraqi government was accused of allowing Iran to use its airspace to make these deliveries. Both Iran and Iraq deny the allegations.

Assad, in his interview with Al-Ahram, stressed that Qatar’s Emir is “providing terrorists with arms and money in the hopes that the experience in Libya will be repeated rather than trying to establish stability in the region.”

Assad accused Qatar of “provoking violence” by training and arming terrorists and sending them into Syria through illegal channels.

Both Qatar and Saudi Arabia have openly called for arming the opposition in Syria and have been delivering financial aid to Assad’s opponents in Syria.

The Syrian conflict has raged on for 18 months, and reports indicate that so far close to 27,000 people have died in the conflicts.

Iran has supported the Beshar Assad government throughout the conflicts and has spoken out against any form of foreign intervention in Syria.