Kana’ani made the remarks in a tweet on Thursday after US State Department Deputy Spokesperson Vedant Patel claimed that the deepening Tehran-Damascus ties should be of great concern, not just to Washington's allies and regional countries, but to the world more broadly.

The Iranian spokesperson stated that it is natural for Washington to be infuriated because it has suffered a defeat in the region at the hands of Tehran and the resistance front.

“The US has expressed concerns about the Iranian president’s visit to Syria and its results and described them as malign! Of course, the anger of that evil regime is natural as it has been defeated in Syria and the entire region by Iran and the Axis of Resistance, and it must end its aggressive presence in Syria,” he wrote.

“Be angry and die of this anger,” he added, repeating a famous quote by former Iranian Judiciary Chief Mohammad Beheshti.

President Rayeesi and his accompanying delegation, which includes foreign, oil, defense, finance and economic affairs and roads and urban development ministers as well as Iran’s central bank chief, landed in the Syrian capital on Wednesday for a two-day trip. It marks the first state visit by an Iranian head of state to Damascus in 13 years.

Rayeesi and his Syrian counterpart Bashar Al-Assad held a meeting on Wednesday and singed an agreement on “long-term strategic comprehensive cooperation” between the two countries.

The two presidents have highlighted the importance of Iran-Syria’s long-term cooperation plan for advancing the interests of the two nations and other countries in the region.

In addition to the strategic cooperation agreement, the two presidents inked 14 other documents in various areas, including trade, oil and energy, engineering, housing, rail and aerial transportation, free trade zones, communications and technology, earthquake reliefs, and facilitation of pilgrimage to the holy sites for the people of the two Muslim nations.

Iranian President Raps US Creation of Terror Outfits in West Asia Ahead of Historic Visit to Syriahttps://t.co/NTgZ2FjTfH pic.twitter.com/aeDELGs5xw

— Fars News Agency (@EnglishFars) May 3, 2023

Since 2011, Syria has been gripped by foreign-backed militancy, as a result of which Daesh and other terror groups emerged in the country.

US forces were first sent to Syria in 2014, beginning with a contingent of special operators followed by more conventional ground troops the next year, most embedded with Kurdish fighters in the country’s oil-rich Northeast. Though then-President Barack Obama maintained the deployment was focused only on combating the Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS, ISIL or Daesh) terrorists, Washington had long intervened in Syria’s war against terror groups, sending and overseeing countless arms shipments to militants seeking to overthrow the government in Damascus.

Though American involvement in the conflict slowed under the next administration, in 2019 President Donald Trump noted some US troops would remain in Syria “for the oil”, openly suggesting Washington would simply “keep” the energy resources. 

Subsequent reporting in 2020 would later reveal that the Trump administration had approved a deal between a US energy firm and Kurdish authorities controlling Northeast Syria to “develop and export the region’s crude oil” – a contract immediately condemned as “illegal” by Damascus. However, while that particular deal would later fall through after President Joe Biden took office, Syrian authorities have continued to accuse Washington of plundering its resources and some 900 US troops remain in the country illegally.

Syria, Iran, Russia and China have repeatedly called on Washington to stop plundering Syria’s national resources and respect the sovereignty and territorial integrity of the Arab country, calling on foreign occupation forces and their mercenaries to leave the war-ravaged country.

Iran maintains an advisory mission in Syria at the request of Damascus with the aim of helping the war-ravaged country get rid of the foreign-backed militants who have been fighting against the democratically-elected Syrian government since 2011. Several members of the IRGC have so far martyred in battle against terrorists in the war-torn Syria.

Tehran has stressed that Washington’s claim of war on terrorism is merely a pretext to continue occupying the Arab country and plundering its wealth, calling on foreign occupation forces and their mercenaries to leave the war-ravaged country.