Ties with Tehran Unaffected by Peace Talks

Officials and the state-run press reiterated this week that peace talks between Syria and Israel would never affect relations with Tehran. Some analysts have suggested that ties with Iran could weaken if Syria signs a peace accord with Israel.



Defence minister Hasan Turkmani and his Iranian counterpart Mohammad Mustafa Najjar signed a new defence cooperation agreement in Tehran on May 28. At a press conference, Najjar said Iran supported Syria’s attempts to reclaim the Golan Heights, which Israel captured in 1967, and insisted that "no one should seek to disrupt” Syrian-Iranian relations, the state-run Syrian Arab News Agency reported.



In a May 26 editorial in the official newspaper Al-Thawra, editor-in-chief Asad Abbod maintained that Syrian-Iranian relations are the “most stable and quiet in the region, and, in some ways, in the entire world”. Abbod added that relations with Iran would not be used as a bargaining chip during the peace negotiations with Israel.