Iran’s Defense Minister Talks with Russia, Syria Counterparts Over US Aggression

In a telephone conversation on Tuesday, the defense ministers of Russia and Iran, General Sergey Shoigu and Brigadier General Hossein Dehqan, discussed the situation in the region following a US missile strike on Syria last Friday and said it runs counter to international law and encourages terrorists.
 
The Russian defense ministry issued a statement saying, "the ministers discussed the situation in the region developing after the US carried out a missile strike at Shayrat airbase." The report added that “they qualified the US actions as contravening international law and helping ISIS terrorist group and other terrorist organizations get more active," the ministry said.
 
New US hostility will not go unanswered
 
Iran’s defense ministry website quoted Dehqan as saying, any new US action in Syria “will not go unanswered.” “The Americans will have to pay a heavy price if they repeat their action and they must know that their actions will not go unanswered,” Dehqan said adding that American leaders of lying by saying they wanted to “fight terrorists”. “Instead of bombing, the Syrian army and the Syrian people are being bombed,” Dehqan noted, quoted in a statement on the website of his ministry.
 
“The resistance front will continue to fight resolutely against terrorists despite the willingness of the Americans,” he added.
 
Elsewhere, the defense ministers of Iran and Syria also held a phone conversation on Tuesday and urged the establishment of a fact-finding committee at the earliest to investigate the US lies about an alleged Syrian government role in the chemical attack on the town of Khan Shaykhun in Idlib Province. “Such measures will have no impact on determination and will of the resistance front in the battle against terrorists,” Brigadier General Dehqan said during the talks with his Syrian counterpart General Fahd Jassem al-Freij who is also the Commander-in-Chief of the Army and Armed Forces. The two sides affirmed the importance of enhancing and developing the military cooperation between Syria and Iran.
 
US aggression will not weaken determination to fight terrorists
 
“The US aggression on al-Shairat airbase will not weaken our determination to continue the war against The Takfiri terrorist organizations,” the two ministers said in the telephone call.
 
They affirmed the need for forming a committee to investigate facts and reveal U.S. administration’s claims toward the events of Khan Sheikhoun.
 
Last Friday, US warships in the eastern Mediterranean fired nearly 60 Tomahawk missiles at the Syrian Shayrat airfield in Homs province, with Pentagon claiming that it was used in a chemical weapons attack against a terrorist-held town in Idlib province on Tuesday.
 
Nine civilians, including four children, were killed in the US missile attack on the military airbase and the nearby villages in the southeastern countryside of Homs province.
 
Two missiles used in the US attack that hit Shayrat airbase killed five civilians, including three children, in addition to causing huge material damage to the houses.
 
Another US missile fell in al-Hamrat village, killing four civilians, including a child. Moreover, seven civilians were injured as a missile struck houses in al-Manzoul village, 4 km away from al-Shayrat airbase.
 
US missile strikes ‘quite poor’
 
Meanwhile, the Russian Defense Ministry says the US missile strike on a Syrian airfield wasn't very effective, with only 23 out of 59 Tomahawk missiles reaching their target. The locations of the remaining 36 missiles’ impact is now unknown, the ministry added.
 
The strike on the Shayrat airfield in Syria’s Homs Province destroyed a material storage depot, a training facility, a canteen, six MiG-23 aircraft in repair hangars and a radar station.
 
The runway, taxiways and the Syrian aircraft on the parking apron remained undamaged, Russia’s Defense Ministry spokesman said in a statement. The ministry described the combat efficiency of the strike as “quite poor.”
 
Russia slammed the US actions as “a gross violation” of the memorandum of understanding signed by Moscow in Washington back in 2015 to prevent flight incidents in Syrian airspace.