Baku, Azerbaijan, Dec. 11
By Umid Niayesh, Saeed Isayev - Trend:
Iran plays an important role in Syria's developments, Russia's foreign minister Sergei Lavrov said, IRINN reported on Dec. 11.
Lavrov made the remarks during the joint press conference with his Iranian counterpart, Mohammad Javad Zarif in Tehran.
Lavrov arrived in Tehran late Tuesday on an official visit to discuss bilateral ties with his Iranian counterpart Mohammad Javad Zarif and other senior Iranian officials.
Russian FM underlined that Iran should be invited to "Geneva II" talks on Syria, adding that Iran's presence in the conference is important.
He also said that all the rights of groups in Syria (political, ethnic, religious groups) should be protected in the country and all of those groups should take role in political development of the country.
Zarif in his turn underlined that the Syrian crisis doesn't have a military solution, adding that political dialogues without any preconditions is the only way for solving the country's ongoing problems.
Syria has been gripped by deadly unrest since March 2011, with the UN High Commissioner for Refugees putting the number of Syrian refugees at two million. The UN refugee agency further said some 4.2 million people have also been displaced inside Syria since the beginning of the conflict in the Arab country. According to the United Nations, to date, over 100,000 people have been killed in the country.
Commenting on Iran-Russia cooperation, Russian FM said that the cooperation is not against other countries and both officials stated that their countries are interested in attracting other regional countries to cooperation.
Speaking of Iraq, Lavrov said that both Iran and Russia share common approach to terrorism problem in Iraq.
"Iran and Russia are interested in resources of all countries to be mobilized for providing stability in Iraq," Lavrov said.