Baku, Azerbaijan, Jan. 14
By Fatih Karimov - Trend:
Iran supports a political settlement of Syrian crisis and a dialogue among Syrian groups, said Hossein Amir Abdollahian, the Islamic Republic's deputy foreign minister.
He made the remarks during a phone conversation with his Russian counterpart, Mikhail Bogdanov, Iran's official IRNA news agency reported Jan. 14.
The two officials discussed the latest regional developments, in particular the ongoing crisis in Syria and the UN envoy for Syria Staffan de Mistura's recent visit to Tehran.
Amir Abdollahian and Bogdanov also underlined that the Syria and Yemen crises have only political solutions and continuation of military and security approaches to regional crises will make the situation even more complicated.
They further expressed support for the UN efforts on a political settlement of the crisis in Syria, and warned against the threat of terrorist attacks in Syria and Yemen.
Tehran and Moscow share the same stance towards Syria, supporting the Syrian President Bashar Assad.
Tehran has always expressed support for the Syrian government since it sees the Assad regime as its main strategic ally in the region and as a part of an "axis of resistance" against Israel.
Western countries accuse Iran of running military operations in Syria, but Tehran denies these accusations. Iranian officials have repeatedly stressed that they only provide military consultations to Syrian forces.