Iran to continue efforts to ensure peace in Syria
Iran has spared no effort to help return peace to the war-torn Syria, a senior official said on Wednesday, vowing that Tehran will continue to stand beside the legitimate Syrian government.
“During the past years, Iran has rigorously stood beside the Syrian government. It is now two years that we are trying to give traction to the notion of peace in the frame of Astana peace process and we will continue to do so,” Special Assistant to Iran’s Foreign Minister in Political Affairs Hossein Jaberi Ansari told IRNA.
Ansari made the remarks after a meeting in Moscow where he held consultations with diplomats of Russia and Turkey amid efforts to find a political solution to the crisis in Syria. The three states act as guarantors of an allsyria ceasefire.
The meeting was held on Tuesday within the Astana format. The Kazakh capital has been hosting talks since January 2017 between the Syrian government and opposition, with the guarantor states in attendance as mediators.
Ansari underlined that the US policy to exclude Tehran in decisions and solutions to resolve the crisis in Syria is doomed to failure.
“The irrational position of certain countries, including the US, on Iran’s role in Syria will not be pursued by other actors because it is a failed policy,” Ansari said.
“No country can exclude other countries, and Iran’s role in Syria and the Astana and peace process is based on realities and has the attention of Turkey and other actors,” he added.
Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Vershinin said on Tuesday that Iran, Russia and Turkey will hold the next top-level meeting on Syria in Astana, Kazakhstan.
“We aim to use the consultations in this format to ‘synchronize our watches’ and to consider the situation on the ground and around Syria, in order to continue our successful cooperation in the Astana format, including organization and holding of the next top-level meeting in Astana,” TASS quoted Vershinin as saying.
Iran-turkey-russia leaders’ summit
Separately, Turkish paper Daily Sabah quoted Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov as saying on Wednesday that Moscow is already working on the next leaders’ summit of Iran, Turkey and Russia on a peaceful resolution to the Syrian conflict.
“Three summits have already taken place in Sochi, Tehran and Istanbul. Now it’s our turn to prepare the next summit. We hope that everything will be done to ensure that the new meeting of leaders marks further movement forward in the Syrian settlement,” Lavrov said during a meeting with Turkish Deputy Foreign Minister Sedat Önal and Ansari.
Russia’s top diplomat also stressed that the Astana format of the Syrian peace talks was the most effective so far for the conflict’s settlement.
“This is why the Astana format is subjected to attacks from those who think not about the interests of Syrian people, but about their geopolitical plans in this region,” Lavrov said.