Iran’s President-elect Hassan Rohani told Lebanese President Michel Suleiman in a telephone conversation on Monday that Tehran seeks “to help the regional nations and governments, and I do not believe that problems in the region, particularly in Syria, can be solved militarily, but we seek [to help establish] a ceasefire in Syria to prevent [further] killings.”

He said Syrians should be allowed to determine their own destiny.

The Lebanese president, for his part, congratulated Rohani on his outright victory in Iran’s 11th presidential election on June 14 and praised his “promising” stances on different issues.

Syria has been gripped by a deadly unrest since March 2011, and many people, including large numbers of government forces, have been killed in the violence.

Damascus says the chaos is being orchestrated from outside the country, and there are reports that a very large number of the militants are foreign nationals.

The Syrian government says the West and its regional allies including Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and Turkey are supporting the militants.

Several international human rights organizations have accused militants operating in Syria of committing war crimes.