Sunni Muslim Salafists burn a giant poster, which features pictures of Russia's President Vladimir Putin, bottom right, Russia's Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, left, Syrian President Bashar al Assa, top left, and his brother Maher al Assad with bloodstained mouths, during a protest against the Syrian and Russian governments in the port city of Sidon in south Lebanon June, 17, 2012.ALI HASHISHO/Reuters
An adviser to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad has denied an Iranian media report that Syria would host Russian, Chinese and Iranian military forces for joint exercises, the Russian news agency Interfax reported on Tuesday.
An Iranian news agency, Fars, reported that 90,000 troops and hundreds of ships, tanks and warplanes from the four countries would take part in the war games on land and sea in Syria soon.
"There will be nothing like that. This is one of those (pieces of) false information that are distributed about (Syria)," Interfax quoted Bouthaina Shabaan, an adviser to Mr. al-Assad who was in Moscow on Tuesday, as saying.
Interfax said she was referring to a report on al-Arabiya television that was similar to the Fars article.