Russia Stresses Iran's Presence on Syria Meeting in Vienna

Russia Stresses Iran's Presence on Syria Meeting in Vienna
Wed Oct 28, 2015 09:20:00

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov on Tuesday underlined the need for Iran's presence in the upcoming Vienna meeting on the Syrian crisis.Also Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad-Javad Zarif and his Russian counterpart conferred over the the ways of solving the crisis in Syria.

Lavrov was speaking to reporters in Moscow during a joint press conference with his Belarusian counterpart Vladimir Makei.

Lavrov said that the present small group negotiating about the Syrian crisis (Russia, the United States, Saudi Arabia and Turkey) is not able to find a settlement to the conflict.

Lavrov expressed hope that Iran and other regional countries will attend the second round of Vienna talks on Syria which is due to be held next Friday.

"Criticizing the critics of international efforts to solve the Syrian crisis, the Russian foreign minister said that Western countries have come to the conclusion that the crisis in Syria can be solved only through diplomatic means."

Lavrov said that in recent meeting with US Secretary of State John Kerry, he had found out that the members of the so-called anti-terrorist US-led coalition are not unified in face of terrorist threats, IRNA reported.

Zarif, Lavrov discuss Syrian crisis settlement

later on the day Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad-Javad Zarif and Lavrov conferred over the phone the ways of solving the crisis in Syria.

'The sides continued discussion of possible ways of settling the Syrian crisis with a focus on urgent steps towards establishing an intra-Syrian political dialogue,' the Russian Foreign Ministry said in a statement.

The conversation was initiated by the Iranian side, according to the statement.

'The two diplomats stressed that there is no alternative to promoting this process by all key countries of the region.'

Earlier, Lavrov and Zarif had telephone conversation on October 24 and 26, which were preceded by a meeting between foreign ministers of Russia, the United States, Saudi Arabia and Turkey in Vienna on October 23 which also focused on Syria.

After the Vienna meeting, Lavrov stressed it was necessary to expand the circle of external players to promote the settlement and named Iran and Egypt as top candidates to join the group, local media in Russia  reported.

HB/V1

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