Iran’s Zarif Due in Moscow Saturday
TEHRAN (Tasnim) – Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif plans to make an official visit to the Russian capital of Moscow on Saturday to hold trilateral talks with his Russian and Turkish counterparts, Sergei Lavrov and Mevlut Cavusoglu, on the Syria peace process.
Zarif is slated to start his one-day visit to Russia on Saturday, Iranian Foreign Ministry Spokesman Bahram Qassemi said on Friday.
The Iranian top diplomat plans to attend a trilateral meeting with Lavrov and Cavusoglu about the latest developments in war-hit Syria, Qassemi said.
Earlier this month, the presidents of Iran, Russia and Turkey –the three guarantor states of de-escalation zones in Syria- held a meeting in Ankara to discuss ways for peaceful settlement of the crisis in Syria.
Since January 2017, Kazakhstan’s capital of Astana has hosted several rounds of peace talks that led to an agreement on de-escalation zones across Syria.
The talks in Astana have been going on in tandem with UN-brokered Geneva talks.
According to reports, the conflict that broke out in Syria in 2011 has claimed the lives of over 470,000 people, injured 1.9 million others, and displaced nearly half of the country’s pre-war population of about 23 million within or beyond its borders.
