Iran warned NATO against any temptation to intervene in Syria, saying that rather than the defeating a regime it would be bogged down in a “quagmire” similar to Iraq or Afghanistan.

Syria’s closest ally in the Middle East, Iran has in recent days tempered its strong support for President Bashar al-Assad with calls for him to respect the “legitimate demands” of his people.

But with the fall of Libya’s Muammar Qaddafi, aided by NATO bombings, Tehran is concerned about the possible, if unlikely, prospect of something similar happening in Syria.

“Syria is the front-runner in Middle Eastern resistance (to Israel) and NATO cannot intimidate this country with an attack,” Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi told the official IRNA news agency.

“If, God forbid, such a thing happened, NATO would drown in a quagmire from which it would never be able to escape...”

“If the West should want to follow the same course as they have done in Iraq and Afghanistan they would not realize the desired result.”

Source: Reuters; IRNA