(10 Sep 2013) Iran issued a stark warning on Tuesday, saying that in the event of a US attack on Syria some rebels groups inside the country may retaliate by striking Israel.
Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister Hossein Amir Abdollahian, made the statement in Moscow after a meeting with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov.
"The reality in the Middle East shows that should there be a war it won't be limited," he told journalists.
"The Zionist regime will be attacked by some groups and movements, especially those that have been formed in Syria over the past two or three years (during the civil war)."
Abdollahian insisted that Iran had evidence that a chemical weapons attack on the suburbs of Damascus on 21 August was launched by Syrian rebels, not government forces as the US claims.
"For example, in December last year we received information that two capsules containing sarin gas were being transferred into the country by Jabhat al-Nusra," he said.
"We gave this evidence to the involved parties, even the US side, at once and asked them to fulfil their international obligations. Unfortunately they didn't make any decision. And three weeks later we saw that terrorist groups used this gas against civilians in the Khan al-Assal region," he said.
The village of Khan al-Assal, just west of the embattled northern city of Aleppo, was reported to have been hit by a chemical weapons attack on 19 March, when at least 30 people were killed.
Assad's regime and the rebels have blamed each other for that attack.
Abdollahian went on to say Iran welcomes Russia's initiative calling for Syria to place its chemical weapons under international control.
Syria has accepted a Russian proposal to place its chemical weapons under international control for dismantling, the Syrian Foreign Minister said on Tuesday, amid a flurry of diplomatic activity aimed at averting Western military action.
"The Islamic Republic of Iran, as one of the biggest victims of chemical weapons, condemns any use of chemical weapons and welcomes any initiative with the intent to solve the problem in a political way," said Abdollahian.
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