Iran's Rouhani congratulates Assad on Aleppo 'victory'

ANKARA: Turkish riot police stand guard in front of the Iranian Embassy during a protest against Iran’s role in Aleppo, in Ankara yesterday. — AFP

DOHA: Qatar's ruler announced Wednesday that the Gulf state will call off its National Day celebrations next week out of solidarity with the people of Syria's war-ravaged Aleppo. The decision to scrap the celebrations came directly from the emir, Sheikh Tamim Bin Hamad Al-Thani, said a statement carried on state media. It was taken "in solidarity with our people in the city of Aleppo, who are subjected to the worst kind of repression and torture, displacement and genocide", said the Qatar News Agency. Qatar's national day falls on December 18, to mark the founding of the state in 1878.

The celebrations usually involve a parade in the centre of the capital Doha, dancing and a huge fireworks display. The final of the 2022 football World Cup to be hosted by Qatar will be played on December 18. Qatar has provided arms to rebel Sunni groups during Syria's five-year conflict and houses a Syrian opposition "embassy" in Doha. Foreign Minister Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al-Thani said Tuesday that the war in Syria would not end if the regime recaptured the country's second city Aleppo. Nizar Al-Haraki, ambassador of the Syrian opposition coalition in Doha said that the decision to cancel the celebrations was "a dignified humanitarian gesture and a strong and positive message of solidarity". He added that he had recently spent two days in Aleppo.

Rouhani congratulates Assad

Meanwhile, Iran's President Hassan Rouhani phoned his Syrian counterpart Bashar Al-Assad yesterday to congratulate him on the impending defeat of rebel forces in the battleground city of Aleppo, his website said. "The victory in Aleppo... constitutes a great victory for the Syrian people against terrorists and those who support them," Rouhani told Assad. The Syrian leader reportedly responded that Iran had stood "on the side of the Syrian people and government in its most difficult moments, and we will never forget it".

Iran has not committed its regular army to the Syrian conflict, but its paramilitary Revolutionary Guards have played a crucial coordinating role. Thousands of Iranian volunteers-many of them motivated by a desire to protect Shiite shrines in Syria-are thought to have fought on the frontline.  With just a small pocket of rebel resistance left in Aleppo, Tehran officials say the offensive has underlined Iran's growing regional clout."The coalition between Iran, Russia, Syria and (Tehran-backed Lebanese militant group) Hezbollah led to the liberation of Aleppo and will next liberate Mosul (in Iraq)," said Yahya Safavi, top foreign policy adviser to Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

Safavi, a former head of the Revolutionary Guards, said a clear message was being sent to the incoming US president, Donald Trump, who has vowed to take a tougher line with Iran. "The new American president must accept the reality that Iran is the leading power in the region," the Guards' Sepahnews website quoted him as saying. Iran accuses the United States and its allies of supporting "terrorists" in Syria. Fresh panels have sprung up around Tehran, with one reading: "The fight against the United States has once again paid off. Aleppo is liberated." Western governments counter that Assad is responsible for the deaths of hundreds of thousands of his own people in more than five years of conflict in Syria.- Agencies