Iran attacks planned US-trained Kurdish border force in Syria

A US plan to form a new border security force in Syria will cause more instability and “add flames of fire” in the war-torn country, Iran has said.

Ghasemi’s comments were carried by Iran’s official news agency IRNA on Tuesday.

The new force has already been criticised by Turkey, Russia and the Syrian government.

The US-led coalition says the force, expected to reach 30,000 in the next several years, is a key element of its strategy to prevent the resurgence of the Islamic State group in Syria and would be deployed along Syria’s border with Turkey and Iraq.

On Sunday, the US-led coalition said it was working with its Syrian militia allies, the mainly Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), to set up the force that would operate along the borders with Turkey and Iraq, as well as within Syria.

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad responded by vowing to crush the new force and drive US troops from Syria. Strong Syria ally Russia called the plans a plot to dismember Syria and place part of it under US control, and Turkey described the force as a "terror army."

"The new plan that the Americans have in mind for Syria is violation of international laws and a plot against sovereignty and security of Syria and region," Rouhani was quoted by state media as saying during a meeting with the speaker of the Syrian parliament Hammouda Youssef Sabbagh.

Sabbagh was in Tehran for a conference of parliamentary speakers.

Iran supports Assad in the nearly seven-year civil war against rebel forces and IS militants, sending weapons and soldiers.

The United States is at the head of an international coalition using airstrikes and special forces troops to aid fighters on the ground battling IS militants in Syria since 2014. It has about 2,000 troops on the ground in Syria.