Iranian, Russian, Turkish Top Diplomats Discuss Syria Peace Process
TEHRAN (Tasnim) – Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif and his Russian and Turkish counterparts, Sergei Lavrov and Mevlut Cavusoglu, exchanged views about the latest efforts to help resolve the protracted crisis in Syria.
In the meeting held in Moscow on Saturday, Zarif, Lavrov, and Cavusoglu held talks about the Syria peace process in the Kazak capital of Astana.
Prior to the trilateral talks, Zarif had attended separate bilateral meetings with the two foreign ministers in the Russian capital on the same day.
Heading a high-ranking delegation, Zarif arrived in Moscow on Saturday to pay a one-day visit to Russia and hold talks with his Russian and Turkish counterparts on a range of issues, including bilateral relations between Iran and the two countries and the latest developments in Syria.
Earlier this month, the presidents of Iran, Russia and Turkey –the three guarantor states of de-escalation zones in Syria- held a meeting in Ankara to discuss ways for peaceful settlement of the crisis in Syria.
Since January 2017, Kazakhstan’s capital of Astana has hosted several rounds of peace talks that led to an agreement on de-escalation zones across Syria.
The talks in Astana have been going on in tandem with UN-brokered Geneva talks.
According to reports, the conflict that broke out in Syria in 2011 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.
