madaresharghi [1]
Ali Akbar Velayati, the top advisor to Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei, said Syrian forces will advance soon to take Raqqa city.
“We will witness in the near future the advance of government and popular forces in Syria and east of the Euphrates, and the liberation of Raqqa city,” Velayati said in televised comments on a visit to Lebanon on Friday, Reuters reported.
The US-backed forces seized the city from the Daesh terrorist group last month.
Velayati accused the United States of seeking to divide Syria by stationing its forces east of the Euphrates river.
Last month, US-backed forces declared victory in Raqqa, Daesh’s former headquarters in Syria.
Damascus says it deemed Raqqa “occupied” until the Syrian Army took control.
Velayati made the comments hours after Syrian forces managed to liberate the eastern city of Deir ez-Zor from Daesh terrorists.
Victory in Deir ez-Zor, the capital of the oil-rich eastern province of the same name, is another setback for Daesh terrorists, who have in recent months lost much of the territory they gained in Iraq and Syria in 2014.
Under the cover of Russian airstrikes, the government has in recent months made advances in eastern Syria.
“With the support of our allies and supporting forces, the city of Deir ez-Zor has been liberated completely from the clutches of the terrorist group ISIS [Daesh], after exterminating large numbers of the organization’s terrorists, including leaders and foreigners, and destroying their weapons and equipment,” said a Syrian Army statement.
Terrorists imposed a siege on the government-held part of the city for more than three years. More than 100,000 civilians and thousands of Syrian forces were trapped, struggling to survive on meager supplies. This siege was lifted in September when Assad’s forces attacked the city.