Baku, Azerbaijan, Nov. 12
By Khalid Kazimov - Trend:
Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister for Arab and African affairs Hossein Amir Abdollahian has left Lebanon for Oman as part of his regional tour to discuss the ongoing crisis in Syria and Yemen.
Earlier this week, he conferred in Russia with his Russian counterpart, Mikhail Bogdanov, along with the secretary general of Lebanon's Hezbollah party, Seyed Hassan Nasrullah, in Beirut, Fars news agency reported Nov. 12.
About 20 countries, including President Bashar al-Assad's key allies and opponents, are preparing to attend the second round of the latest peace talks on Nov. 14 in a bid to end the Syrian crisis, while Assad's fate remains the main sticking point in the talks.
The first round of talks, held in Vienna on Oct. 30, failed to reach agreement on Assad's future, as Tehran expressed support for President Assad's government, while rival Saudi Arabia demanded Assad leave the country.
In a Nov. 12 interview with IRNA news agency, Amir Abdollahian speculated that if Tehran is sure that all parties seek to resolve the Syrian crisis through a political solution, then Iran will attend the peace talks in Vienna on Nov. 14.
He further added that Iran backs Russia's decision to fight terrorism in Syria.
Noting that the Syrian army has recently launched a number of successful military operations against the opposition armed groups, he added that Tehran still believes in a political solution to end the crisis.
Tehran has lost at least 40 servicemen, including high-ranking commanders, since the Syrian army, backed by the Russian Air Force, Iran's Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) and Lebanon's Hezbollah, launched the massive "Muharram" operation on October 15, aimed at taking control of Aleppo.