Baku, Azerbaijan, Nov. 6
By Khalid Kazimov - Trend:
Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister for Arab and African affairs Hossein Amir Abdollahian has briefed his Russian counterpart, Mikhail Bogdanov, on Tehran's latest discussions with Damascus over the Syrian crisis.
"Calling for a serious fight against terrorism, Damascus supports a political solution based on elections and preventing foreign intervention," ILNA news agency quoted Amir Abdollahian as saying, in a telephone conversation with Mikhail Bogdanov on Nov 5.
Similarly, Mikhail Bogdanov called upon Iran to attend the upcoming peace talks on Syria.
At a meeting in Tehran on Nov. 3, Syrian Deputy Foreign Minister Faisal Mekdad expressed his country's opposition to the idea of a "transitional period" in Syria, saying the Syrian government opposes the political transition sought by Western countries to end the crisis in his country.
"We are talking about a national dialog in Syria and a broad-based government, as well as a constitutional process. There is no talk of a transitional period in Syria," the Syrian official said.
Seeking to end the Syrian civil war, both the allies and opponents of President Bashar al-Assad are planning to resume peace talks, though the first round of talks held in Vienna on Oct. 30 failed to reach agreement on al-Assad's fate.
During the late October peace talks, Tehran expressed support for al-Assad's government, while rival Saudi Arabia demanded al-Assad and Iranian-backed troops leave the country.
Also, Iran denies that it has deployed soldiers to fight in Syria, and says it only provides the Syrian army with military advisers.
Tehran has officially confirmed that the number of casualties in the Syrian war has increased, with unconfirmed reports suggesting that some 30 Iranian servicemen have been killed in Syria over the past month.