Tehran, Moscow Confer on Syrian Situation

A special envoy of Russian President Vladimir Putin met a representative of the Leader of Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei in Tehran on Thursday.

Alexander Lavrentiev, President Putin's point man on Syria, held talks with Ali Shamkhani, who is the secretary of Iran's Supreme National Security Council and Ayatollah Khamenei's representative to the SNSC, Press TV reported.

The two discussed latest developments regarding the conflict in Syria and stressed the importance of further political and field coordination in the Arab country. Shamkhani is also Iran's high representative for the coordination of joint political, military and security activities with Syria and Russia.

Iran has been offering advisory military support to the Syrian government since foreign-backed militants overran parts of Syria and unleashed a wave of terrorism in that country. Moscow has also been carrying out an aerial bombardment campaign inside Syria against militants on behalf of Damascus. The three countries have coordinated the joint campaign against terrorism in Syria.

Shamkhani said while Iran stresses the continuation of the fight against terrorism in Syria, it is also committed to exploring a political solution to the lingering conflict in the Arab country.

"We deem the military approach as effective only against those groups that refuse to lay down arms," he said.

A nationwide ceasefire between the Syrian Army and armed groups has been in place in Syria since late last year.

Iran, Russia and Turkey, which together act as guarantor states for the Syrian ceasefire, have also been organized political talks between the Syrian conflicting sides in a peace process in the Kazakh capital Astana.

Shamkhani referred to these talks and said the armed opposition in Syria should not be discouraged from participating in the talks by inventing pretexts or as a result of the incitement of certain countries opposed to peace.

Lavrentiev commended Iran's "constructive" role in the peace process for Syria but stressed Moscow's commitment to militarily fighting groups that shun the political process and continue to engage in armed activities.

He said Russia will concurrently continue to work on political channels.