Iran Again Provides Free Oil to Syria

TEHRAN — Iran’s Parliament Thursday renewed an agreement providing for delivery of one million tons of free crude oil to its Arab ally, Syria.

A Foreign Ministry official said the government proposal was a measure of support for Syria’s confrontation with Israel and its siding with Iran in the war against Iraq.

“We see no difference between the oil we put in our tanks to fight Iraq and that which Syria puts in its tanks on the Israeli border,” said parliamentary deputy Hossein Harati in the broadcast parliamentary debate.

Mohammed Mehdi Rahbari, opposing the bill, caused a brief commotion among the deputies by saying that Syria had not taken any serious practical measure against Israel since 1971, and that the ruling system in Damascus was opposed to Islam.