Tehran – Supreme Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyed Ali Khamenei cautioned against the US attempts to bring Syria under control as part of a long-term plot for establishing foothold in West Asia, describing it as a threat to all countries, especially Iran and Russia.

“Under a long-term plot, Americans seek to make up for their historical lack of dominance over West Asia by dominating Syria and then spreading their control over the region, and this scheme is a threat to all nations and countries, particularly Russian and Iran,” Ayatollah Khamenei said at a meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin, held in Tehran on Monday.

Imam Khamenei noted that the US and its followers are trying the “negotiating table” and political ways in relation to Syria to achieve the objectives that they failed to reach militarily.

“Vigilance and active stances” are necessary to block the US plots, the Leader stressed.

Ayatollah Khamenei also slammed the faults in Washington’s policies toward Syria, including an insistence on the overthrow of Syria’s legitimate President Bashar al-Assad as well as direct and indirect supports for terrorist groups, like Daesh (ISIL).

The Leader further hailed the Russian president’s “good and innovative” policies over the past one and a half years, saying, “Americans always try to push their rivals to a position of passiveness, but you (President Putin) thwarted this policy.”

    

Ayatollah Khamenei underlined that Moscow’s decisions and actions on Syria have enhanced the regional and international credibility of Russia and Mr. Putin.

Settlement of the crisis in Syria will have significant effects on the future of the region, the Supreme Leader noted, and warned, “If the terrorists who are committing these crimes in Syria are not crushed, the scope of their destructive activities will spread into Central Asia and other regions.”

Syria has been gripped by civil war since March 2011 with Takfiri terrorists from various groups, including the ISIL, currently controlling parts of it.

Meanwhile, Russia’s recent aerial support for the Syrian forces has given fresh impetus to the fight against the foreign-backed terrorists.

Since late September, Russia has been carrying out bombings against the ISIL terrorists in Syria, after Russia’s parliament granted President Putin authorization to deploy the country’s air force abroad.

In the past four and a half years, more than 250,000 people have died in Syria -overwhelmingly civilians- and around 4 million Syrian people are now refugees in other countries. Around 8 million others have been displaced internally.