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Iran to attend next int'l meeting on Syria: official

Xinhua, November 9, 2015 Adjust font size:

Iran will attend the upcoming international talks on the future of Syria to be held in the Austrian capital of Vienna on November 12, Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister for Arab and African affairs Hossein Amir-Abdollahian said on Monday.

Amir-Abdollahian made the remarks in a telephone conversation with Mikhail Bogdanov, Russian President Vladimir Putin's special representative for the Middle East and Africa, Press TV reported.

The Iranian Foreign Ministry official asked the participants in the talks to adopt a "realistic" approach to help resolve the Syrian crisis.

Political means and national dialogue will help the people of Syria to decide their own future democratically, he said.

On Nov. 2, Amir-Abdollahian criticized what he called Saudi Arabia's "unconstructive" role in October international talks on Syria, threatening to walk out of the talks should the next meeting be "unproductive."

In the meeting in Vienna, "some countries, particularly Saudi Arabia, played negative and unconstructive roles, as they could not provide a logic for their positions vis-a-vis Syria's conflicts," Amir-Abdollahian said.

"If our assessment of the next talks is positive, we will continue to attend the next meetings," he said. Otherwise, if the negotiations will be "a show" and if the rights of the Syrian people to decide on the future of their own country are ignored, Iran would pull out of the talks, he added.

Following the international talks on the future of Syria in Vienna on Oct. 30, Saudi Arabia's Foreign Minister Adel al-Jubeir said the talks should entail a decision on a date and means for the ouster of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad from the power, as well as the withdrawal of foreign forces, "especially Iran," from Syria.

Iran, who participated for the first time in the talks on Syria, said that it would not accept pressure for the ouster of al-Assad under the pretext of solving the Syria crisis.

On Monday, Iran's Foreign Minister Mohammad-Javad Zarif, said that the international community should unite against terrorism in the region, particularly in Syria.

The task of the international community is to fight terrorism in Syria and to leave the future of the Arab State to the Syrian people, he said.

Tehran has emerged as a staunch regional ally of the Assad government in Syria's long-lasting conflict, saying it would keep its "military advisers" in Syria to help the Syrian government in its struggle against militants. Endit