Iranian Diplomat, Syrian FM Discuss Peace Process
TEHRAN (Tasnim) – Iranian foreign minister’s special assistant for political affairs, Hossein Jaberi Ansari, and Syrian Foreign Minister Walid Muallem exchanged views about the latest efforts to politically resolve the protracted crisis in the Arab country.
In the meeting in Damascus on Sunday, Jaberi Ansari and Muallem held talks about issues related to the Syrian Constitutional Committee.
They also exchanged views about an upcoming meeting which is slated to be held in Geneva, Switzerland, between the three guarantor states of the Syria truce, namely Iran, Russia and Turkey, and the UN special envoy for Syria as well as the tenth round of the Astana talks in the Russian city of Sochi.
The Iranian diplomat also met with some other high-ranking Syrian officials to discuss the latest military and political developments in Syria.
The senior Iranian official left Damascus for Beirut on Sunday night.
Iran, Russia and Turkey have so far held several rounds of peace talks in Astana and elsewhere to help end the conflict in Syria. The fourth round of those talks in May 2017 produced a memorandum of understanding on de-escalation zones in Syria, sharply reducing fighting in the country.
Diplomatic efforts to end fighting in Syria gained momentum in 2017 with the announcement of a ceasefire in the Arab country in early January.
According to a report by the Syrian Center for Policy Research, the conflict has claimed the lives of over 470,000 people, injured 1.9 million others, and displaced nearly half of the country’s pre-war population of about 23 million within or beyond its borders.
