Damascus, London – Iran’s Chief of Staff for Iran’s Armed Forces Mohammad Bagheri announced drawing a new policy to boost military cooperation between his country and the Syrian regime.

In a joint press conference held in Damascus on Wednesday with his Syrian counterpart Ali Ayoub, Bagheri said: “I am in the Syrian capital to coordinate and cooperate in order to fight our common enemies — whether they are the Zionists or the terrorists. We discussed ways to strengthen relations in the future and outlined the basic principles of this cooperation.”

Tehran would not tolerate violations of Syrian sovereignty by Israel, Bagheri stressed, vowing that the two countries would jointly fight against Syria’s enemies.

Bagheri added that Kurdistan Region President Masoud Barzani “has made a serious mistake after carrying out the referendum in Kurdistan, northern Iraq, as he took steps to achieve an imaginary independence that may drag the region to future confrontations.”

For his part, Lt. Gen. Ayoub said: “We held plenary talks which included a comprehensive assessment of all the current developments, and we discussed in details the relations binding our armies and the mutual desire to enhance these relations.”

He affirmed that the Takfiri terrorist project “will end and the war against terrorism will continue till eliminating it completely and restoring security and stability to all the territories of the Syrian Arab Republic.”

Ayoub accused the United States of trying to impede the progress of the army in its operations to combat terrorism through groups that have been forced to obey terrorist organizations such as ISIS and others to attack the Syrian regime army.

He also considered the entry of Turkish forces into Idlib violates what was agreed upon in Astana, and “we have all the rights to respond to this attack,” Ayoub said.