Strasbourg, 17/01/2012 (Agence Europe) - On Tuesday 17 January, the spokesman for the Iranian foreign affairs department, Ramin Mehmanparast, described French accusations of sending Iranian arms to Syria as “inaccurate”. He said that it would be better if this kind of declaration were avoided and explained that, “unfortunately, we regularly witness political positions that are without proof and groundless from the leaders of certain European countries”.
The spokesman also said that, “we are totally opposed to interference in the domestic affairs of all countries. We respect this” and Iran regularly, “denounces Western interference in Syria”.
On Monday 16 January, the deputy spokesperson for the French foreign affairs department, Romain Nadal, accused Tehran of sending weapons to Syria. According to Nadal, the UN panel of experts on Iran identified several cases of violations of the arms embargo (as implemented in Resolutions 1747 and 1929) to and from Iran. He said the panel subsequently informed the Security Council of this development. On 13 January, senior US officials explained that their government was convinced that Iran was providing weapons to Syria. (CG/transl.fl)