Syrian President Bashar al-Assad has appeared on television for the first time in more than two weeks.
State television showed Assad meeting with visiting special Iranian envoy, Saeed Jalili, an aide to Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
Assad told Jalili Syrian forces would "cleanse the country of terrorists."
Jalili responded by saying that Tehran would continue its support of Assad and his government.
Jalili said, "What is happening in Syria is not an internal issue but a conflict between the axis of resistance on one hand and the regional and global enemies of this axis on the other."
Assad had not appeared on television since July 22 when he received new armed forces commander General Ali Ayyub just four days after the previous army commander was killed in a bombing.
Based on reporting from AFP, Reuters, and dpa