The Iranian Foreign Ministry has dismissed a report published by a US paper, accusing Tehran of setting up a center for training and sending Shia fighters to Syria, Press TV reported.
In an article published by the Washington Post on May 26, Abigail Hauslohner claimed Iran is at the center of the Shia mobilization movement and accused Tehran of funding and supplying a Shia network of armed support for the Syrian government.
The article said the trained fighters include "Iranian security forces", members from Lebanon's Hezbollah resistance movement, as well as Iraqis "drawn largely from militant groups."
Such media reports are timed to coincide with the International Conference on Syria in Tehran and overshadow Iran's efforts for a political settlement of the crisis in Syria, the ministry's spokesman, Seyyed Abbas Araqchi, stated on Wednesday.
Araqchi also condemned the allegation as a ploy to justify the European Union's decision earlier this week to lift an arms ban on the foreign-backed militants fighting to topple the government of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.
On Wednesday, Tehran hosted the International Conference on Syria: Political Solution - Regional Stability, which was attended by representatives from 40 countries.
During the meeting, the participants discussed ways to find a political solution to the crisis in Syria and agreed on the need for a political resolution to the ongoing crisis and an end to all violence in the Arab country.