Speaker: Iran Ready to Cooperate with EU on Syria
TEHRAN (Tasnim) - Iranian Parliament Speaker Ali Larijani voiced Tehran’s preparedness to cooperate with the European Union (EU) in settling the prolonged crisis that has ravaged Syria since 2011.
In a meeting with the European Union foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton here in Tehran on Sunday, Larijani touched upon the efforts Iran has so far made to secure peace and stability in the regional countries, like Afghanistan and Iraq.
And now, the speaker added, Iran is ready to continue working in close cooperation with the European Union to help settle the scourge of war in Syria.
Larijani reiterated that the Syrian crisis has no military solution, and flatly deplored western plot to arm the extremists and terrorists fighting in the war-torn country.
He stressed that the Syrian nation should be given the opportunity so that democracy could prevail in the fragmented Arab country during a gradual process.
Ashton, for her part, described the purposes of his visit to Tehran as negotiating with the Iranian high-ranking political officials to explore the avenues for the further expansion of interaction between the Islamic Republic and the EU over major regional and international issues.
On the ongoing crisis in Syria, Ashton underlined that delivery of the humanitarian aids to that country should have priority over the other issues. She also hailed Iran’s significant role in that regard.
The Islamic Republic has so far dispatched several consignments of humanitarian supplies to crisis-ridden Syria since the beginning of war in 2011.
Earlier in October, 2013, Head of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) in Lebanon, Fabrizio Carbone, praised Iran for the humanitarian aid it has delivered to the Syrian refugees in Lebanon.
Syria's war that started in 2011 has killed over 130,000 people so far and forced more than 2 million to flee abroad. Another 4 million have been displaced inside the country.
Iranian officials have on different occasions insisted that a political approach would be the sole solution to the three-year-old crisis in Syria, saying that campaign against terrorism should be top on the agenda of any regional or international conference on Syria.