Iranian, French Diplomats Discuss Syria in Tehran
TEHRAN (Tasnim) – Iranian foreign minister’s special assistant for political affairs, Hossein Jaberi Ansari, and the outgoing French Ambassador to Iran Francois Senemaud discussed the latest efforts to politically resolve the protracted war in Syria.
In their meeting, held in Tehran on Saturday evening, Jaberi Ansari offered his congratulations to Senemaud for his new post as the French president’s special envoy on Syria.
He further emphasized that since the beginning of the Syrian civil war, Tehran has believed that the crisis has no military solution.
Now that the process of countering terrorism has achieved success and grounds have been provided for the re-establishment of the Syrian government’s sovereignty over major parts of the country, three issues are the political and humanitarian priorities of the current stage, Jaberi Ansari said.
These issues include the facilitation of return of Syrian refugees, launch of Syria’s constitutional reform committee, and activating the committee of exchanging prisoners and Syrians who have been missing in the clashes.
Senemaud, for his part, praised Iran as a major country and regional power that plays an important role in restoring stability to Syria and the political process to resolve the Arab country’s crisis.
He voiced France's support for the mentioned priorities and expressed his country's readiness for cooperation with Iran in finding a political solution to the crisis.
Syria has been gripped by civil war since March 2011 with various terrorist groups, including Daesh (also known as ISIS or ISIL), fighting against the central government.
In the meantime, Iran has remained a close ally of Syria and supports its legitimate government in the face of foreign-backed militancy.
