Putin and Rouhani agreed that the use of chemical weapons is unacceptable and signaled their shared opposition to military intervention in Syria war, the Kremlin said after the leaders spoke by phone.

"Both sides consider the use of chemical weapons by anyone intolerable," Putin's press service said in a statement about the conversation on Wednesday, which it said Iran initiated.

"Taking into account the calls being voiced for external military intervention in the Syrian conflict, they also stressed the need to seek a path to a resolution through exclusively political and diplomatic means," it said.

Addressing his weekly Cabinet session in Tehran on Wednesday, Rouhani said the international community and the people of Middle East in particular are not ready for a new war, and any act of adventurism would only spread extremism and terrorism in the region.

“The United Nations must investigate the type of weapon used, and previous transfer of chemical substances from outside Syria to the hands of Takfiri groups based on the evidence on the ground and then announce its findings in a transparent manner,” Rouhani added.

Hundreds of people were killed and scores of others were injured in a chemical attack in the Damascus suburbs of Ain Tarma, Zamalka and Jobar on August 21.

The foreign-backed opposition has blamed the Syrian government for the deadly attack. Opposition sources claimed that 1,300 people were killed in the poisonous gas attack.

The Damascus government, however, has vehemently denied the accusations, saying the chemical attack was carried out by the militants themselves as a false-flag operation.

The war in Syria started in March 2011, when protests turned into a massive insurgency following the intervention of Western and regional states.

NTJ/NJF