Iran will not accept the ouster of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad before the next presidential elections in the country, a senior adviser to Iran's top leader was quoted as saying on Sunday.
"Iran believes that the government of Bashar al-Assad should remain in power until the end of his presidency term and the removal of Assad is a redline for us," Xinhua quoted Ali Akbar Velayati, the advisor to Ayatollah Ali Khamenei on international affairs, as saying.
Velayati dismissed the pressures on Assad's removal by the outsiders, saying that only the Syrian people can decide the future of their country. The US authorities cannot tolerate Iran's influence in countries like Iraq and Syria, he said.