yrian President Bashar Assad told the speaker of Iran's Parliament that the international pressure on Syria and Iran aims at intimidating the two countries, something that would never happen, an Iranian official said. Assad, during a meeting in Damascus with Gholam Ali Haddad Adel, said some international powers were seeking to isolate Iran and Syria, but those efforts would not be successful, according to the official, who is a member of the Iranian delegation.Both Iran and Syria are under U.S. sanctions. The United States accuses them of supporting Palestinian resistance groups and the Lebanon's Hizbullah. It also accuses Iran of seeking to build nuclear bombs and Syria of allowing insurgents to cross into Iraq. Iran and Syria deny the charges. The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, quoted Assad as saying that the campaigns against Syria and Iran by the United States and other Western countries aimed at "creating fear and permanent concern among those two countries."
Haddad Adel said his visit to Syria is aimed at sending off a joint Syrian-Iranian message, which is that "the two countries' relations would remain strong." Syria's official news agency SANA said Assad discussed with Haddad Adel "the relations of friendship and cooperation between the two countries." The Iranian official said Assad also raised the issue of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri's assassination, reiterating Syria's innocence. Assad, according to the official, said those who plotted for Hariri's assassination wanted to "create a rift between Syria and Lebanon and expand the circle of tension in the region."
Following an earlier meeting with his Syrian counterpart Mahmoud al-Abrash, Haddad Adel warned Israel against attacking his country's nuclear facilities. "If Israel does something stupid and attacks our nuclear facilities like it did in Iraq, we promise to teach it a lesson it will never forget," he said.