The U.S. and its allies in the anti-terrorist coalition have been holding an air operation to destroy terrorists of the Islamic State (ISIS) organization on Syrian territory for a year. During this period, the American Air Force undertook 2409 air attacks on positions of extremists, but it didn’t bring any results. According to some data, General John Allen, who was appointed as the coordinator of U.S. policy against ISIS a year ago, is going to resign.
Last week another round of Russian- Iranian consultations on the Middle East was held, devoted to the Syrian settlement. Mikhail Bogdanov, the Deputy Foreign Minister of Russia for the Middle East and African countries, and his colleague Hossein Amir-Abdollahian participated in the meeting.
After the consultations, Abdollahian said that Mohammad Javad Zarif, the Foreign Minister of Iran, had met with President of Syria Bashar al-Assad and presented new political ideas about a settlement of the Syrian crisis.
“Mr. Bashar al-Assad gave us interesting and attractive ideas on the Syrian settlement," he said.
Both Tehran and Moscow intend to use all of their capabilities and their full potential, along with Syria, so that Syria emerges from this crisis.
Any political initiative will be discussed and implemented simultaneously with the fight against terrorism in the region. And Mr. Bashar al-Assad, Syria's legitimate President, will be a part of a political settlement of the Syrian issue in any initiative. In any step, at any stage of political settlement, of course, the role of the Syrian people will be the key one, and very important,” Abdollahian said.
According to him, “the recent decision by the Russian President, based on the fact that we need to provide more assistance in the fight against terrorism in Syria, is very wise and appropriate. Tehran and Moscow will continue their contacts with the Syrian opposition, with the conviction that the Syrian opposition, which believes in a political settlement of the Syrian issue, is also a part of this solution, a part of a political solution to this issue.”
The next day after the consultations Mikhail Bogdanov met a delegation of representatives of the internal Syrian opposition in Moscow. Bogdanov insisted on the need to intensify efforts for a political settlement of the Syrian crisis through building a negotiating process between the Syrian government and a wide spectrum of the opposition on the basis of the Geneva Communiqué of June 30th 2012. He meant consolidation of all Syrian socio-political forces for the international anti-terrorist struggle, as the terrorists threaten the existence of Syria and the security of the Middle East region in general.
