US Official: Syria Solution ‘Hard to Imagine’ without Iran

"Hard to imagine a solution to the Syrian crisis without Iran," US Blinken told France 24 on Wednesday.

Iranian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Marziyeh Afkham on Wednesday said Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif will visit the Austrian capital of Vienna to take part in a meeting due to be held on Friday on ways to end the ongoing crisis in Syria.

Foreign Minister Zarif will participate in the meeting scheduled to be held on Friday, Afkham confirmed.

The foreign ministers of Russia, the US, and several European and Arab countries will also attend the one-day meeting in Vienna, Afkham added.

She further noted that the Iranian delegation as well as those of Russia and the European Union will also confer on different regional issues and other areas of mutual interest on the sidelines of the meeting.

Deputies to the Iranian foreign minister Hossein Amir Abdollahian, Seyed Abbas Araqchi, and Majid Takht Ravanchi will accompany Zarif in this trip, she stated.

Earlier in the day, Afkham had confirmed that Iran has received an invitation to attend the Vienna talks.

The Friday meeting will be preceded by another meeting due to be held on Thursday on the Syrian crisis with top diplomats scheduled to attend, a source in the Russian Foreign Ministry said Wednesday.

“A ministerial quartet (US, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Turkey) meeting is planned for tomorrow (Thursday),” the diplomatic source told RIA Novosti.

Elsewhere in her remarks, Afkham raised the possibility that the Iranian delegation hold a coordination meeting with the US delegation on the sidelines of the upcoming meeting on the implementation of a recent nuclear agreement finalized by Tehran and world powers in Vienna.

Iran and the Group 5+1 (Russia, China, the US, Britain, France and Germany – also known as the P5+1 or E3+3) on July 14 reached a conclusion on a 159-page nuclear agreement that would terminate all sanctions imposed on Tehran over its nuclear energy program after coming into force.

The agreement was officially adopted on October 18, and is going to take effect within the next two months.

Under the nuclear deal dubbed as Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), all nuclear-related economic and financial sanctions against the Islamic Republic will be lifted.