This request came after Iran has requested the extension of Akhtari ( pictured) assignment in Damascus for several more months, following a decision last October to appoint one of the assistants to Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad as successor.

Syria has requested replacing the Iranian Ambassador with another one who will interfere less in its internal affairs , after he was criticized last October by Syria’s religious leaders in this regard . To the Syrians Akhtari has become a Persona non grata.

The sources said that "the Syrian side is also the one behind the termination of the assignment of Iranian cultural attache and for the same reasons as well."

The sources said that Syria told the Iranians that it has no objections against Ahmed al-Musawi, the assistant to Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad as a replacement to Akhtari as long as he does not interfere in its internal affairs.

Both Syria and Iran back the Hezbollah militia in Lebanon which has been trying to overthrow the democratically elected government of Prime Minister Fouad Siniora . Hezbollah was created by the Iranian Revolutionary Guards in 1982 and has been accused of fighting Iranian proxy wars in Lebanon.

Syria has been blamed for all the assassinations in Lebanon starting with the attempted assassination of Marwan Hamade in 2004 and ending ( so far ) in the assassination of Army General Francoise al -Hajj who was assassinated yesterday morning in Baabda, a suburb of Beirut .