Turkey's next after Syria: Iranian Chief of Staff

TEHRAN - Doğan News Agency

EPA Photo

Turkey will be next in line for violence after Syria if it continues to work on behalf of Western interests, Iranian Chief of General Staff Hasan Firuzabadi has said, according to Doğan news agency.
 
Ankara is following the Western lead in the region, along with Saudi Arabia and Qatar, and is responsible for the bloodshed in the Arab republic, Firuzabadi said.
 
"If these countries continue with their existent approach to Syria, they should know that Turkey and the others will be next in line," Firuzabadi said.

Kazem Jalali, a member of the Iranian Parliament's National Security and Foreign Policy Commission, had previously said that "Turkey and those who support and arm terrorists [in Syria]" were responsible for the safety of Iranians kidnapped in Syria.
 
Forty-eight Iranians were kidnapped on Aug. 4 by unidentified "armed terrorist groups" as they were travelling in a bus to the airport in Damascus, according to the Iranian embassy in the Syrian capital and the Syrian state news agency SANA.

It was the single biggest abduction of Iranians since the start of the Syrian uprising in March last year.