Iran’s Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, on Sunday condemned the American missile attack on a Syrian air base, saying it was a “strategic mistake”.
“The Americans’ action is a strategic mistake, as they are repeating the mistakes of their predecessors,” Khamenei said, according to the IANS news agency.
He warned that just as Europe is now facing the threat of terrorism, so will the U.S.
The U.S. fired 59 Tomahawk missiles at the Shayrat air base in central Syria overnight Thursday, in response to a chemical weapons attack on civilians in the Idlib province.
Western countries say Bashar Al-Assad's regime was responsible for the attack. The Syrian government denies this.
Iran is a strong supporter of Assad and has been providing him with both financial aid and military advisors against a range of opposing forces.
Near the start of the Syrian civil war, it was reported that then-Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad had personally sanctioned the dispatch of officers from the Iranian Revolutionary Guards to Syria to fight alongside Assad’s troops.
Iran, however, has continuously rejected allegations that it has any fighters on the ground in Syria, claiming it only has “military advisors” in the war-torn country.
