Senior Iranian and Russian officials sat down for talks in Tehran on Tuesday to coordinate their positions days ahead of another round of Astana peace talks aimed at resolving the lingering crisis in Syria.
The meeting was held between Secretary of Iran's Supreme National Security Council Ali Shamkhani and Russian President Vladimir Putin's special envoy on Syria, Alexander Lavrentiev, IRNA reported.
Shamkhani said all countries involved in the conflict should respect the rights of the Syrian people in deciding their own destiny, saying this will pave the way out of the crisis.
Lavrentiev said Russia, Iran and Syria play a decisive role in rooting out terrorism in the region.
The sixth round of Astana talks involving Russia, Turkey and Iran will take place in the Kazakh capital on Sept. 14-15.
The main issue in this round of talks, which in the past few months focused on establishing four de-escalation zones in Syria, will be forces that the three countries plan to deploy to control the zones.
