Iran, Syria Must Continue Consultations on Regional Issues - Assad

By Staff, Agencies

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad highlighted strategic relations with Iran, calling for continued consultations between the two sides, particularly on regional issues, given the rapid developments in the region and the world.

Assad made the remarks in a meeting with a senior aide on political affairs to Iran’s foreign minister, Ali Asghar Khaji, in Damascus on Tuesday.

The Syrian president voiced his country’s support of the continuation of the political process on the Syria crisis, mediated by Iran, Russia and Turkey, in the Kazakh capital of Nur-Sultan, formerly known as Astana, and the talks on the activation of the country’s Constructional Committee.

Khaji, for his part, said the Western countries have been attempting to isolate Syria, although such policy has been defeated given the developments unfolding on the battlefield against terrorists and the improvement of its relations with other states.

The senior Iranian diplomat further exchanged views with the Syrian President on the latest developments in the talks between Iran and the P4+1 group of countries in Vienna, the conflict running between Russia and Ukraine, and the continuation of the Astana talks.

Assad and Khaji discussed ways to promote Tehran-Damascus relations in all fields, particularly in the economic sector, to serve the interests of the two friendly countries and their peoples, state-run SANA news agency reported.

It added that the two sides discussed the future rounds of negotiations within the Astana format and in Geneva, emphasizing that the negotiations should proceed without foreign interference and based on a clear strategy in order to achieve tangible results.

According to SANA, the Syrian president and the Iranian diplomat also exchanged views on the Ukraine crisis.

They slammed the immoral measures taken by the West to fuel the crisis of its own making in Ukraine, including transferring extremists from various parts of the world to that region and imposing sanctions on the Russian people, similar to those previously placed on the Syrian and Iranian nations.