Halt on flights over Syria would help radicals: Iran

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A Syrian woman carries the body of her infant after he was retrieved from under the rubble of a building following a reported airstrike on Sept 23, on the al-Muasalat area in the northern Syrian city of Aleppo. (AFP)
A Syrian woman carries the body of her infant after he was retrieved from under the rubble of a building following a reported airstrike on Sept 23, on the al-Muasalat area in the northern Syrian city of Aleppo. (AFP)

UNITED NATIONS, Sept 23, (AP): Iranian President Hassan Rouhani on Thursday joined in opposing a call by US Secretary of State John Kerry to halt all flights over Syria in efforts to get relief shipments through, saying that would only help Islamic radicals gain ground.

Rouhani also alleged Washington was sowing fear among financial institutions wanting to do business with his country as part of the sanctions relief due Tehran under a deal with six powers in exchange for curbs on its nuclear program. He spoke on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly a day after the US government gave aviation giants Airbus and Boeing Co the go-ahead to sell aircraft to Iran as part of the landmark deals under the nuclear pact potentially worth some $50 billion.

The outgoing administration of President Barack Obama is keen to show that it is honoring the economic terms of the nuclear pact. But Rouhani said permission should have been granted months earlier under terms of the nuclear pact and criticized the “severe delay.” Coming during heated Security Council debate Tuesday, Kerry’s proposal to halt all flights was met with disagreement both in Moscow and even in Washington. Gen Joseph Dunford, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told Congress any grounding of war planes should exclude American aircraft, and Russia’s deputy foreign minister said grounding flights would make matters worse, a view echoed Thursday by Rouhani.

Kerry called for a stop to all flights after an airstrike on a humanitarian aid convoy this week that killed 20 civilians. But Rouhani suggested air strikes remain the best way of attack on Islamic radicals. “If you ground flights,” he said, “you are aiding the terrorists whether you like it or not because the terrorists … are well equipped except for an air force.” Iran strongly backs Assad’s government and Rouhani said the first priority now should be getting aid to those in need.

The second must be a continued focus “on the fight against terrorism,” and the third should be “to pave the proper path” to elections including all groups and political parties in Syria, he said Iran complains that international financial sanctions are not being lifted quickly enough under the agreement that stipulates a removal of these and other penalties imposed over Tehran’s nuclear program in exchange for Tehran’s agreement to curb atomic activities that could be used to make a bomb. Tehran says America is to blame, a theme Rouhani sounded both in an earlier speech to the General Assembly and in his comments to reporters.

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