Zarif: Russia Can Use Iran Bases for Anti-Terror Battle in Syria

MOSCOW- Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif says Iran could, if necessary, allow Russia to use its military bases on “a case by case basis” for missions against terrorists in Syria.

“Russia doesn’t have a military base (in Iran), we have good cooperation, and on a case by case basis, when it is necessary for Russians fighting terrorism to use Iranian facilities, we will make a decision,” Reuters quoted Zarif as saying in Moscow on Tuesday.

 According to Press TV, the top Iranian diplomat, who is accompanying President Hassan Rouhani on his two-day visit to Moscow, further said that regional issues, including the crisis in Syria, would be discussed at the upcoming meeting in the Kremlin with Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Last August, Russia announced that its planes had used a base in western Iran to carry out counter-terrorism air raids in Syria.

“On 16 August [2016], Tu-22M3 long-range bombers and Su-34 frontline bombers, flying with a full bomb load from the Hamedan air base, conducted a group airstrike against targets of” Daesh and Jabhat Fath al-Sham [Jabhat al-Nusra] terrorist groups in the Syrian provinces of Aleppo, Dayr al-Zawr and Idlib, a Russian Defense Ministry statement said back then.

Just days later, Moscow confirmed that all warplanes based in Iran had returned to Russia.

At that time, Iranian Defense Minister Brigadier General Hossein Dehqan said that as long as Iran agreed, Russia could use the air base again “depending on the situation” in Syria.

Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Bahram Ghasemi said at the time that Russian airstrikes on militants in Syria were “temporary, based on a Russian request.”

Last month, Supreme National Security Council Secretary Ali Shamkhani stressed that Russia continues to use Iran’s airspace as part of a strategic cooperation between the two countries.

H.M