Baku, Azerbaijan, March 14
By Umid Niayesh - Trend:
UN-Arab League envoy for Syria, Lakhdar Brahimi will visit Tehran on March 16, Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister for Arab and African Affairs Hossein Amir-Abdollahian said, the country`s Mehr news agency reported on March 14.
Brahimi is scheduled to meet with senior Iranian officials including President Hassan Rouhani and foreign minister Mohammad Javad Zarif regarding the latest developments in Syria.
Iran is a close ally of the Syrian government and has always shown its support for the regime of Syrian President Bashar al Assad. The Syrian opposition claim that Iranian military forces are fighting against them, while Iran dismisses the claims, saying that the country only has advisors in Syria to transfer its military experience to the Syrian army.
On Feb. 12, Iranian MP Seyyed Mahmoud Nabavian said that Iran has trained some 150,000 Syrian citizens in Iran, and another 150 000 in Syria itself.
During the conflict in Syria which began in March 2011, more than 115,000 people were killed in the country and over 4.2 million became refugees in Syrian territory and two million fled to neighboring countries. The main burden of receiving refugees fell on Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon and Turkey. The total population of Syria before the conflict amounted to 20 million.