Ahmadinejad vows allegiance to Syria

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad met on Tuesday evening with visiting Syrian Foreign Affairs Minister, Walid al-Muallem, and pledged he would work to strengthen the relationship between the two

countries, to the discontentment of Israel and the United States.

Hosting his guest in Tehran, Ahmadinejad emphasized that he had no intention of letting any outside factor impact the strategic alliance between Iran and Syria.

"The deeper our regional cooperation is, the more beneficial this will be to the nations in the area and the more this will impair our enemies," he said.

Ahmadinejad's statements come as Jerusalem and Damascus prepare to launch a fourth round of indirect talks through Turkish mediation.

Leaders meet in Tehran on Tuesday (Photo: AFP)

But despite the strongly-worded rhetoric from his host, Al-Muallem was quoted by the IRNA news agency on the sidelines of a conference in Tehran for the Non-Aligned Movement as saying that Syria "is doing everything in its power to ensure the success of our talks with Israel."

The Iranian president laid out his worldview to al-Muallem, and explaining why America's Middle East policies were weak.

"All of the US' plans against Lebanon and Syria have failed," said Ahmadinejad, adding that America "is in the worst situation it has ever been in.

"Fortunately, Iran and Syria see things as they are and stand by each other, invoking much

disappointment from the enemies."

Ahmadinejad warned that "the Zionist regime and America are interested in making concessions when they are already retreating, therefore we must be alert to the enemies' ploys."

Earlier in the day the Syrian foreign minister declared in his address at the conference that there would never be peace until Israel "returned the occupied territories."