Iranian Speaker Warns of Negative Impacts of Supporting Extremists in Syria

TEHRAN – Iranian Parliament Speaker Ali Larijani warned of increasing violence, deaths and destruction in Syria, cautioning that if foreign meddlers, specially the US, continue arming extremists, violence and chaos might spill over into the neighboring and even western countries,according to FNA.

“They (the West) might think they will exploit these extremist groups for the time being and take care of them later. They are, however, unaware that once these terrorist groups grow, the West and its allies in the region will not be able to confront them. An example of this is Afghanistan,” Larijani said.

Syria was hit by a violent unrest since mid-March 2011, where the Syrian government accuses foreign actors of orchestrating the conflict by supporting the militant opposition groups with arms and money.

Early in March, a ranking member of the US marine troops deployed in Afghanistan told FNA that the Pentagon made the decision to send a major part of its light and semi-heavy weapons systems and military equipment to the “rebels” in Syria along with its pullout from Afghanistan when the former US Defense Secretary, Leon Panetta, was still in office.

“The decision to send our arms and weapons systems in Afghanistan to the rebel groups in Syria was originally made when the former US Secretary of Defense was in his final days of office, yet the Pentagon has also received the approval of the new Secretary, Chuck Hagel, as well,” said the source who asked to remain anonymous due to the sensitivity of his information.

“One of these cargos consists of the light and semi-heavy military tools, equipment and weapons that the US army has gathered and piled up in Kandahar Base and plans to send them to the rebels in Syria in the form of several air and sea cargos and through Turkey and specially Jordan,” he explained.

“These weapons and arms systems include anti-armor and missile systems, rocket-launchers and rockets and tens of armored Humvees,” the source added, explaining that senior war strategists in the Pentagon believe that they can change the scene of the war in Syria in the interest of the rebel groups with the help of these cargos, specially the shoulder-launched missile systems and the multipurpose Humvee vehicles.

R.S