Our Concern Is Stability, Security Of Whole Region: Iranian Envoy Ilahi On Syria Situation

New Delhi: Days after rebel forces overthrew President Bashar Assad's authoritarian government in Syria, Iranian envoy Iraj Ilahi on Wednesday said it is very soon to judge about the current situation in the region even as he underlined that Tehran's concern is regarding the stability and security of the "whole region" and not just of Syria or Iran.

Interacting with PTI on the sidelines of an Iranian food festival here, the ambassador touched upon the civilisational ties between India and Iran, and asserted that "we are at the beginning of a new era of promotion of tourism between the two countries".

Ilahi's comments on the situation in Syria and its potential wider ramifications comes days after the Syrian government collapsed on Sunday as the rebels seized control of the capital Damascus after capturing several other prominent cities and towns. Assad fled the country after the rebel group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) took control of Damascus, marking the end of his family's 50-year rule.

Russian state media reported that Assad is in Moscow and will be given asylum. His nearly 14-year tenure was marked by civil war, bloodshed and brutal crackdown on his political opponents.

"It is very soon to judge about the current situation in the region. Iran has concerns regarding the stability and security of the whole region," Ilahi said.

He alleged that Israel is following its "expansionism policy" and has "violated the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Syria". It has "struck different military bases" of that country, the envoy charged.

Multiple reports in international media claimed that Israeli forces have struck against many "strategic targets" in Syria since the ouster of the Assad regime.

"So, we have concern regarding security of the whole region, not just Syria or Iran. The uncertainty of the region is the main concern of Iran. We are not thinking about our security, but our concern is the security and stability of the whole region, which will affect the prosperity and living standard of whole nations who are in the region," Ilahi said.

Earlier on Monday, the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) said it is monitoring the unfolding developments in Syria and advocated a peaceful and inclusive Syrian-led political process going forward in that country.

On the bilateral ties with India, the Iranian ambassador said "people-to-people (ties) is one of the most... part of Iranian diplomacy".

This policy, regarding India, is "more important" for it, he added.

"We have too many common heritage, Iranian cuisine, Iranian chai and Iranian customs is famous in India and Indian cuisine and Indian heritage is famous in Iran. So, we have taken some measures to introduce Iranian heritage to India to attract the Indian tourists to Iran, and also we have taken some measures to facilitate the visit of Indians to Iran," the envoy said.

He also touched upon the aspect of Iran having waived visa for India among other countries.

Iran has waived visa for more than 40 countries and more than half of the world's population can travel to Iran without needing any visa.

"Besides, we are in close contact with different airways to open new flights between Iran and India... So, we are at the beginning of a new era of promotion of tourism between the two countries," he added.

The envoy said Iran is in "close contact" with India's tourism minister and Iranians are "keen to visit India". The natural and historical places of Iran are attractive for Iranians, he said.

"So, we hope that such measures like the food festival can bridge the two nations and can facilitate better knowledge of the countries, inshallah (God willing), we in near future, will witness more Iranian tourists in India and at the same time we will host more Indians in Iran," Ilahi said.

He also shared that recently he had a "constructive" and a "very good" meeting with a deputy minister of India and they discussed different issues, especially "bottleneck" in promotion of trade between the two countries.

"We agreed to take common measures and steps to remove these bottlenecks and we inshallah will increase import of different commodities from India. As we are now importing rice, tea, banana, etc., still there are goods available in India, which we in Iran need and we are importing them from other countries," the envoy said.

"We are keen to import from India. And in this regard, we need some G2G (government-to-government) meetings, which we have planned to have in the near future. And we also need B2B (business-to-business) meetings to get Iranian businessmen closer to the Indian businessmen," he added.