Hossein Sheikholeslam, director-General of the Iranian parliament for International Affairs. Photo: Screenshot.

JNS.org – The newly announced Russian-American deal to disarm Syria of chemical weapons, rather than stage a military strike on Syria, was “a testament to the victory of the resistance axis comprising Iran, Syria, Hezbollah and Hamas,” Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian said Saturday.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had said last week, before the deal was reached, that the message Syria receives over its chemical weapons usage “will be clearly heard in Iran.”

Free Syrian Army Commander Brig. Gen. Salim Idris, leader of the opposition forces to President Bashar al-Assad’s regime in Syria, said the deal was a “blow to the uprising in Syria” and that Assad “is fooling the world.”

“The Syrian regime has begun transferring chemical weapons to Lebanon and Iraq,” Idris said, referring to a report on Sunday by the Lebanese newspaper al-Mustaqbal. “The deal will allow Assad to continue slaughtering innocent people.”

Addressing a memorial ceremony for Israeli soldiers killed in the 1973 Yom Kippur War on Sunday, Netanyahu said, “We hope the understandings reached between the United States and Russia regarding the Syrian chemical weapons will yield results.” The prime minister called for “the complete destruction of all of the chemical weapons stockpiles that the Syrian regime has used against its own people.”