Iran, Russia stress intra-Syrian dialog

TEHRAN - Iran and Russia have underlined the need to take all key regional players on board by promoting an intra-Syrian dialog to settle the four-and-a-half-year crisis gripping the Arab country.
Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif and his Russian counterpart, Sergei Lavrov, stressed this point while discussing ways of resolving the Syria conflict in a telephone conversation on Tuesday, said the Russian Foreign Ministry, adding that the conversation had been initiated by the Iranian side, Press TV reported.
"The [two] sides continued discussion of possible ways of settling the Syrian crisis with a focus on urgent steps towards establishing an intra-Syrian political dialog," the ministry said, adding, "The two diplomats stressed that there is no alternative to promoting this process by all key countries of the region."
The telephone conversation was the third between Zarif and Lavrov over the past week during which the two foreign ministers discussed the ongoing crises in the Middle East, particularly the Syria conflict.
They spoke over the phone on October 24 and 26 preceded by a meeting between the foreign ministers of Russia, the United States, Saudi Arabia and Turkey in Vienna on October 23 which focused on the settlement of the Syria crisis.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, US Secretary of State John Kerry, Saudi Foreign Minister Adel al-Jubeir and Turkish Foreign Minister Feridun Sinirlioglu sat down for talks in Vienna on Friday to discuss how to end the Syria conflict.i