Iran’s FM Not to Attend Swiss Meeting on Syria: Source
TEHRAN (Tasnim) – An informed source dismissed reports that Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif would attend a ministerial meeting in Switzerland’s Lausanne for talks on the Syria crisis.
Foreign Minister Zarif has no plans to take part in the Lausanne meeting, IRIB quoted the source as saying after reports suggesting that the top Iranian diplomat is going to meet his counterparts from the US, Russia and some regional countries in Switzerland to discuss the most recent developments in Syria.
Russia’s Foreign Ministry announced in a statement on Wednesday that Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and US Secretary of State John Kerry will meet in Lausanne on Saturday to discuss the Syria crisis, saying the two diplomats are going to consider what further steps could be taken to get a Syria settlement.
Reuters had reported that foreign ministers from Turkey, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and Iran will also take part in the talks.
Syria has been gripped by civil war since March 2011 with various terrorist groups, including Daesh (also known as ISIS or ISIL), currently controlling parts of it.
Some 470,000 Syrians have been killed throughout the five years of bloodshed, 4.8 million have fled the country, and 6.6 million have become internally displaced by the violence.
