Ayatollah Seyyed Ahmad Khatami delivers the Friday Prayers sermon on April 6, 2012.
Tehran's interim Friday Prayers leader says Western states have incited and are fueling tensions in Syria to make up for the loss of their allies in the region through the Islamic Awakening.
The loss of subservient dictators in the region such as Tunisian Zein El Abidin Bin Ali, Egyptian Hosni Mubarak, Libyan Muammar Gaddafi, and Yemeni Ali Abdullah Saleh has prompted the West to launch and back the opposition movement in Syria, Ayatollah Seyyed Ahmad Khatami said.
“Syria is also paying the price for its all-out resistance against the Zionist regime [of Israel],” the senior Iranian cleric added.
Ayatollah Khatami, a member of the presiding board of the Assembly of Experts, said while Iran backs the reform process in Syria, it also believes that any foreign intervention in this country will only serve to deteriorate the situation.
Arrogant powers are frustrated that the Syrian government, backed by its nation, has so far withstood all Western tensions, he added.
The senior cleric warned arrogant powers and Arab regimes, particularly Saudi Arabia, that they will be the first to suffer the consequences of any foreign military intervention in Syria.
Syria has been experiencing unrest since mid-March 2011 and many people, including security forces, have lost their lives in the violence.
The West and the Syrian opposition accuse the government of killing the protesters. But Damascus blames ''outlaws, saboteurs and armed terrorist groups'' for the unrest, stating that it is being orchestrated from abroad.
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