The Iranian deputy foreign minister for Arab and African affairs says developments are moving on the right track in Syria after a ceasefire deal came into effect.
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“If countries help the process of fight against terrorism and the process of ceasefire with serious determination, it can be said that the Syrian developments are moving on the right track,” Hossein Amir-Abdollahian said on Tuesday.
The ongoing ceasefire in Syria has opened up a better prospect for holding negotiations to find a political solution to the crisis in the war-stricken country, the Iranian diplomat said in a meeting with Wolfgang Amadeus Bruelhart, Assistant State Secretary for Middle East and North Africa Division at the Swiss Federal Department for Foreign Affairs.
A ceasefire agreed by the United States and Russia took effect in Syria on February 27 midnight Damascus time. The Syrian government also accepted the terms of the truce on condition that military efforts against Daesh and the al-Nusra Front Takfiri militants, who are not included in the ceasefire agreement, continue.
The ceasefire agreement in Syria has revived hopes that the truce would lead to an end of nearly five years of war in the country.
The foreign-sponsored conflict in Syria, which flared in March 2011, has claimed the lives of some 470,000 people and left 1.9 million injured, according to the Syrian Center for Policy Research.
Amir-Abdollahian also said that Iran and Switzerland must continue consultations on regional developments, particularly ways to put an end to war in Yemen and to dispatch humanitarian aid there.
“The Islamic Republic of Iran supports the idea of broad-based national talks in Yemen,” the senior Iranian official said.
The Swiss diplomat, for his part, said his country is keen to broaden cooperation with Iran on regional developments.
The meeting came a few days after Swiss President Johann Schneider-Ammann paid an official visit to Tehran at the head of a high-ranking politico-economic delegation.
Schneider-Ammann held talks and attended a joint press conference with Iranian President Hassan Rouhani and also met with Chairman of the Expediency Council Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani and Speaker of Majlis (parliament) Ali Larijani. He held a separate meeting with Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei.
