Iran calls for Muslim countries to depend on themselves

TEHRAN: Iran´s President Hassan Rouhani called on Tuesday for more solidarity between Muslim countries and for them not to depend on “foreigners” for their development.

His comments come after Washington threatened to withdraw from a landmark deal between Tehran and world powers that lifted crippling sanctions in exchange for curbs to Iran’s nuclear programme.

“Only non-dependence on foreigners and increased solidarity between Muslim countries will allow us to overcome the Islamic world´s problems,” Rouhani said. “We should... count on our own capacities” to ensure “growth and development”, he said at the opening in Tehran of a session of the parliamentary union of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation. But “this does not mean we should seek isolation,” he added.

Iranian President Hassan Rouhani said on Tuesday a new US-backed, 30,000-strong force inside Syria constituted a breach of international law and Syrian sovereignty, joining Syria, Turkey and Russia in a vehement rebuke of the plan.

On Sunday, the US-led coalition said it was working with its Syrian militia allies, the mainly Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), to set up a force that would operate along the borders with Turkey and Iraq, as well as within Syria. Syrian President Bashar al-Assad responded by vowing to crush the new force and drive US troops from Syria. “The new plan that the Americans have in mind for Syria is violation of international laws and a plot against sovereignty and security of Syria and region,” Rouhani was quoted by state media as saying during a meeting with the speaker of the Syrian parliament Hammouda Youssef Sabbagh.

Sabbagh was in Tehran for a conference of parliamentary speakers. Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Bahram Qasemi said earlier on Tuesday that the planned US -backed force inside Syria would “fan the flames of war” and raise tensions. “The US announcement of a new border force in Syria is an obvious interference in the internal affairs of this country,” Qasemi was quoted as saying by state news agency IRNA. Qasemi urged all US forces to leave Syria immediately.