The United Nations stood behind condemnation of the Syrian government issued by special envoy Staffan de Mistura after Sunday airstrikes on a busy marketplace in Douma, a rebel-held suburb of Damascus, left a reported 96 people dead, the Associated Press reported yesterday.

In a statement Monday, de Mistura condemned the government air raids in the eastern Damascus suburb of Douma, one of the deadliest since Syria’s crisis began in March 2011. He called it “unacceptable under any circumstances.” …

The Syrian government said Tuesday that de Mistura’s statement showed he relied only on “propaganda circulated within circles known for their hostility to Syria.”

Commenting on the Syrian government’s criticism, a spokeswoman for the U.N. secretary-general Vannina Maestracci told reporters in New York Tuesday: “We stand by the statement he issued yesterday.”

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad praised last month’s nuclear deal with Iran, which would provide Tehran with billions of dollars in sanctions relief, as a “great victory.” The deal was signed just a week after Iran extended Assad a $1 billion line of credit.

Without mentioning the massacre, Ali Akbar Velyati, a top advisor to Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, reiterated Iran’s support for the Assad regime yesterday, according to Iran’s official IRNA news agency.

Without strategic relations between Iran and Syria the idea of ‘resistance’ against US policies and Zionists’ atrocities would be meaningless and Iran’s Supreme Leader has underlined time and again that Iran is determined to continue its supports for Syria, he said.

Iran never accepts any regional or international solutions ignoring the role of the Syrian government and nation, Velayati said.

Interpol issued a “red notice” against Velayati for his involvement in the 1994 AMIA Jewish community center bombing in Argentina.

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