Syria's president Bashar al-Assad praised his top regional ally Iran for a deal with world powers on its nuclear programme Tuesday, saying he expected it to bring more support, while rebels fighting Assad voiced concern the deal would expand Iran's Middle East influence.
In a telegram to Iran's supreme leader Ayataollah Ali Khamenei, Assad hailed Tuesday's deal as "a great victory" and a "major turning point in the history of Iran, the region and the world".
"We are quite assured that the Islamic Republic of Iran will continue with greater momentum, supporting the just causes of nations and working for peace and stability to prevail in the region and the world,"Assad wrote in the cable, quoted by Syrian state news agency Sanaa.
In a separate message to Iran's president Hassan Rouhani, Assad said the deal had guaranteed the Iranian people's rights to possess peaceful nuclear technology.
He called the accord, which curbs Iran's nuclear activity in return for the lifting of economic sanctions "a victory for all lovers of peace and justice all over the world".
The coming days would will see momentum in the "constructive role" played by Iran in supporting "the rights of people" he said.
Shia Iran has provided military, financial and diplomatic support to Assad in the four-year-long conflict that has become a focal point in its struggle with the conservative Sunni Muslim Saudi Arabia, and gave a new one billion dollar credit line to Assad this month.
But rebels fighting Assad in Syria's bitter conflict say his survival has depended on support from Iran, which also backs the Lebanese Shia political group and militia Hezbollah, has deployed Iranian military advisers and mobilised Shia fighters from elsewhere in the Middle East.
"This agreement will make the region more dangerous," said Iyad Shamse, leader of the Asala and Tanmieh Front rebel group in northern Syria.
Tuesday's landmark deal was been welcomed by the European Union, the United States, Iran, Turkey, Russia, and the Vatican but was slammed by Israel, by Saudi Arabia and by Iran's exiled Iranian opposition group the National Council of Resistance of Iran, based in Paris.
