Iran’s FM Leaves for Vienna to Attend Syria Talks
TEHRAN (Tasnim) – Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif on Thursday left Tehran for Austria’s capital to take part in an upcoming meeting where a number of countries will confer on ways to find a solution to Syrian crisis.
The Iranian minister is scheduled to meet his US and Russian counterparts John Kerry and Sergei Lavrov in Vienna on Thursday.
Zarif will then participate in a Friday meeting, where world powers and regional states are to discuss ways to end the ongoing crisis in Syria.
Several countries including Russia, the United States, Britain, France, Germany, Egypt, Jordan, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Turkey and the United Arab Emirates are expected to attend the talks.
The US, Russia and Europe failed at earlier efforts to reach a negotiated end to Syria’s civil war, which has raged since 2011, and created such chaos that the murderous ISIL terrorist group has been able to seize vast swaths of territory.
Iranian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Marziyeh Afkham on Wednesday confirmed that Iran had received an invitation to attend the Vienna talks.
Deputies to the Iranian foreign minister Hossein Amir Abdollahian and Seyed Abbas Araqchi are also accompanying Zarif in this trip.
This has followed a shift in Western countries’ policies towards Tehran’s regional role, as US Deputy Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Wednesday stressed that a diplomatic solution to Syrian crisis is impossible without Iran.
"Hard to imagine a solution to the Syrian crisis without Iran," US Blinken told France 24.