Mr. Zarif is in Moscow along with Defense Minister Brig. Gen. Hossein Dehghan to participate to a trilateral meeting to which Turkish and Russian ministers also contribute. Before the trilateral meeting, Zarif met with Mr. Sergey Lavrov to offer condolences to Russian government for assassination of the country’s ambassador to Ankara on Monday.
Mr. Lavrov believed that the assassination would make fight against terrorism even more resolute; “this is totally unacceptable that a petty group of terrorists would demand us to abandon Syrian legitimate government to its own means,’ he said. “We hail Mr. Zarif’s condolences for the death of the ambassador in assassination; trilateral meeting and the present meeting as well, will contribute to normalization of the situation in Syria; attempts will focus on implementation of agreements signed by both presidents earlier,” Lavrov told the meeting.
Zarif for his part believed that terrorism would recognize no geographical boundaries for itself; “the Islamic Republic of Iran stands with Russia in fighting terrorism; we would not accept any justifications for terrorist acts under pretext whatsoever; all countries should follow Iran and Russia in coming to the conclusion that terrorists would not serve their short-term interests, and their disastrous decision will backlash sometime in the future,” he added. “Iran, Russia, and other groups have been pioneered fights against terrorism, and we are happy that cooperation brings now its fruits since humanitarian aid is in the right track.”
“Now with evacuation of terrorists and trapped civilians from east of Aleppo, time is ripe for ending hostilities and embark on a political dialogue; we believe Syrian crisis would not be solved through military means,” Zarif told the meeting.
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