Putin’s envoy meets Leader’s representative in Tehran
A special envoy of Russian President Vladimir Putin met with a representative of the Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei in the Iranian capital.
Alexander Lavrentiev, Putin’s point man on Syria, visited with Ali Shamkhani, the secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council (SNSC), on Thursday, Press TV reported.
The two discussed the latest developments regarding the conflict in Syria and stressed the importance of further political and field coordination in the Arab country.
Shamkhani is also Iran’s high representative for the coordination of joint political, military, and security activities with Syria and Russia.
Iran and Russia have both been offering the Syrian government advisory military support. Moscow has also been carrying out an aerial bombardment campaign inside Syria on behalf of Damascus. The three countries have been in close contact over their joint activities.
During the Thursday meeting with Lavrentiev, Shamkhani said that while the Islamic Republic stressed the continuation of the fight against terrorism in Syria, it was also always committed to exploring a political solution to the conflict in the Arab country.
“We deem the military approach as effective only against those groups that refuse to lay down arms,” he said.
A nationwide cease-fire deal has been in place in Syria since late last year. The deal, facilitated by Iran, Russia, and Turkey, excludes internationally-designated terrorist groups and other armed outfits that refuse to engage in a reconciliation process with the government.
Iran, Russia, and Turkey, which together act as the guarantor states for the Syrian cease-fire, have also been organizing political talks between the Syrian conflicting sides in a peace process in the Kazakh capital of Astana.
Shamkhani referred to those negotiations and said the armed opposition in Syria – which is a party to the Astana talks – should not be allowed to shrink from participating in the talks by inventing pretexts or as a result of incitement by certain countries opposed to peace.
Elsewhere in his remarks, he said European countries, too, had to be concerned about the ongoing terrorism in Syria because, “like a dangerous virus, terrorism passes through borders and can’t be used instrumentally”.
Lavrentiev commended Iran’s “constructive” role in the peace process for Syria but stressed Moscow’s commitment to militarily fighting those groups that shun the political process and continue to engage in armed activities.
He said Russia would, however, continue to work on the political channels on a parallel basis.