Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi called for “political dialogue” between the Syrian government and opposition groups after a lightning offensive by opposition forces, Alarabiya News reports.
After talks with Russian and Turkish foreign ministers on Syria, Araghchi said parties agreed on the initiation of “political dialogue between the Syrian government and the legitimate opposition groups.”
Lavrov said on Saturday that he and the foreign ministers of Turkey and Iran had agreed in the meeting that there had to be an immediate end to “hostilities” in Syria.
Lavrov said Moscow wanted to see dialogue between the Syrian government and what he called the “legitimate opposition” in Syria.
He said the Military Operations Administration were “terrorists” regardless of whether they said they had changed their views.
“It’s inadmissible to allow the terrorist group to take control of territory in violation of agreements,” Lavrov said.
Asked how the situation in Syria would develop and what would happen to Russian military bases there, Lavrov said he was “not in the business of guessing.”
The importance of restarting the Syrian political process was stressed at a meeting of Turkey, Russia and Iran in Doha on Saturday, a Turkish foreign ministry source also said, adding that the meeting was constructive.
