Iran Reiterates Political Solution to Syrian Crisis

Iranian Parliament Speaker Ali Larijani underlined Tehran’s support for a political solution to the Syrian crisis, and called on the West to stop backing terrorist groups in the Muslim country.
“We welcome the promotion of democracy in Syria, but democracy cannot be created through terrorism and weapons of mass destruction and we have repeatedly pointed out the issue to the regional countries,” Larijani said in a meeting with Croatian Archbishop Josip Bozanic in Zagreb on Thursday.

The Iranian parliament speaker stressed that the main concern regarding the situation in Syria is that some countries clandestinely provide arms to terrorist groups operating in the crisis-hit country.

Iranian officials have repeatedly underlined that Tehran is in favor of negotiations between the Syrian government and opposition groups to create stability in the Middle Eastern country.

Last November, Iran hosted a meeting between the representatives of the Syrian government and opposition to encourage them to start talks to find a political solution to their problems. The National Dialogue Conference kicked off work in Tehran mid November with the motto of ‘No to Violence, Yes to Democracy”.

The meeting brought together almost 200 representatives of various Syrian ethnicities, political groups, minorities, the opposition, and state officials.

The conflict in Syria started in March 2011, when sporadic pro-reform protests turned into a massive insurgency following the intervention of western and regional states.

The unrest, which took in terrorist groups from across Europe, the Middle-East and North Africa, has transpired as one of the bloodiest conflicts in recent history.

As the foreign-backed insurgency in Syria continues without an end in sight, the US government has boosted its political and military support to Takfiri extremists.

Washington has remained indifferent to warnings by Russia and other world powers about the consequences of arming militant groups.