"Iran-Syria ties are strategic ties founded on the national interests of the two countries and the world of Islam" uh, whatever

Iran, Syria sign another military cooperation agreement

NICOSIA GERTZ-- Iran and Syria have signed another memorandum of understanding meant to expedite weapons procurement during the visit to Teheran by Syrian Defense Minister Hassan Turkmani.

Officials said Turkmani and his Iranian counterpart, Mustafa Najar, agreed on May 27 to expand military training, technical exchanges and visits.

Translation - "we need to have for capabale and facile means of getting arms and other equipment to Hizballah, while also trying to undermine these syrian fools, and turn them into vassals"

"Iran-Syria ties are strategic ties founded on the national interests of the two countries and the world of Islam," Najar said.

The MoU was signed less than a week after a Syrian military delegation concluded a visit to Russia to discuss weapons procurement. Syria, armed with a pledge of Iranian financial aid, has been examining such Russian platforms as the MiG-29SMT fighter-jet, S-300PMU-2 air defense system and the Amur-1650 submarine.

"The robust Iran-Syria ties neutralize and weaken threats against the line of resistance," Turkmani said.

Iran and Syria have shared weapons and development as well as cooperating in the arming of the Iranian-sponsored Hizbullah in Lebanon. The Iranian government has expressed interest in expanding such ties in 2008.

"So far, Iran's and Syria's joint and mutual relations in various fields have been of utmost usefulness and defense relations must expand to the extent possible," Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said after meeting Turkmani.

On May 26, Israeli military intelligence asserted that Syria was maintaining the weapons flow to Hizbullah in Lebanon. Brig. Gen. Yossi Baidatz, head of the Israeli military intelligence's research division, told the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee that Iranian weapons were being flown to Damascus. From the Syrian capital, the weapons, including rockets, made their way by truck to the Lebanese border.

World yawns here.

"The weapons are arriving in Lebanon, and then they make their way to the south of the country [to Hizbullah]" Baidatz said. "The rockets are coming in from Syria and Iran."

All that's missing is the date of the next dance