Iran condemns Syria militants attack on journalist
The Islamic Republic has officially condemned a recent attack on an Iranian journalist in Syria, saying international organizations should set aside their inaction on the plight of media corps in the crisis-hit country.
Hossein Amir-Abdollahian, who serves as the deputy foreign minister for Arab and African affairs, said Tuesday that there must be more support at the international level for journalists operating in conflict zones like Syria.
The senior diplomat rapped a recent attack on a team of journalists in western Syria in which Mohammad Hassan Hosseini, a field correspondent of the Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting (IRIB), was critically injured in a mortar attack by militants in Syria's western city of Latakia
Amir-Abdollahian said Iran’s mission in Damascus is following up on the treatment process of Hosseini in Syria.
Furthermore, Iranian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Marzieh Afkham also condemned the militant attacks on civilians, including journalists, in Syria, expressing hope for the full and speedy recovery of Hosseini.
Fear of truth
Earlier on Tuesday, a member of Iranian TV news crew covering the conflict in Syria said militants operating in the Arab country are deliberately targeting journalists in order to conceal what really happens on the ground.
Ghassan al-Khashan said there is a deliberate attempt to prevent the release of news and reports of militant setbacks in Syria.
Khashan, a Syrian cameraman who was accompanying Hosseini when he was targeted in the attack, said the world is still unfamiliar with the truth of the conflict in Syria.
He said terrorists target the journalists to help those “biased media” continue with the narrative that most of the Syrian territory is under the control of militants.
"They don’t want the truth to be uncovered for the world," Khashan said.
Sources in Latakia’s Darraj hospital, where Hosseini is being treated, said they will do their best to save him. They said Hosseini is being kept in the intensive care unit and currently breathes through a ventilator.
A number of correspondents affiliated to Iranian news stations have in the past fallen victim to the conflict in Syria, among them Press TV correspondent Maya Naser, who was killed in September 2012 after militants attacked Press TV staff in the capital, Damascus.
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