On Friday, March 8, Heshmatollah Falahat Pisheh, the chair of national security and foreign policy of the parliament while referring to the fact that Iran is the reason why the Syrian government has survived, stated that: “Syria’s debt to Iran is to our people and it must be paid.”

In his interview with IRNA, Falahat Pisheh continued: “Although different countries cooperate with Syria, no country has been able to replace the Islamic of Republic of Iran’s unmatched support of Suria.”

He explained that the relations between Iran and Syria are divided into two parts: “The two countries are part of the resistance which Iran is leading, and it has achieved great success.”

Falahat Pisheh elaborated: “The current government of Syria only had almost 11 percent of the Syrian soil under its control, now it has over 65 percent of the country under control.”

Since January of 2011, Iran has claimed to have sent “consultants” to Syria, but during the Syrian civil war, hundreds of Iranian combatants were killed.

Falahat Pisheh warned about not missing the opportunity to get involved in Syria’s economy and mentioned Iraq as an example where “Iran managed great in the field but was weak in political and economic areas” which according to him, led to missing out on opportunities in Iraq.