Iran sanctions relief will worsen Syrian refugee crisis for the west

...European politicians have ignored Iran’s role in producing the waves of desperate Syrians fleeing to Europe.

“The refugee crisis is a direct consequence of European and Western paralysis over Syria.

Calling for Assad’s ouster was easy, but they did nothing as Iran and Russia propped him up,” Prof. Gerald Steinberg, a political scientist at Bar-Ilan University, told The Jerusalem Post on Monday.

Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said Monday that critics who demand that Assad be deposed “are responsible for the bloodshed in Syria.” He added that the call for Assad to resign has extended the Syrian civilian war.

“Peace will not return to Syria with the slogans we are hearing from Syria’s neighboring countries,” Zarif said in a direct reference to Turkey and presumably also to the Sunni Gulf states supporting rebel groups seeking Assad’s ouster...