Iran vows never to let 'axis' with Syria to be broken

Tehran -  A senior Iranian official has described the relationship between his country and Syria as an 'axis of resistance' that Tehran would not allow to be broken as President Bashar Assad promises to continue the struggle against his enemies 'without respite'.

Iran has been trying to guarantee the survival of Assad, who serves as Tehran's only reliable ally in the Middle East, by supplying his regime with funds and weaponry to aid the campaign against rebels.

Saeed Jalili, the secretary of Iran's Supreme National Security Council, came to Damascus as a visible symbol of that support, The Telegraph reports.

"Iran will never allow the resistance axis - of which Syria is an essential pillar - to break," the paper quoted him, as saying.

"What is happening in Syria is not an internal issue but a conflict between the axis of resistance on one hand, and the regional and global enemies of this axis on the other," he added.

According to the paper, the 'axis of resistance' refers to the Middle East's anti-Western powers: Iran, Syria and the armed groups, Hizbollah and Hamas, although in reality the latter has already broken away by ending its presence in Damascus.

Iran and Syria both claim that foreign countries have caused the uprising against Assad with the aim of destroying the 'axis'.