Iran’s Zarif to Meet President Assad

Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif was in Damascus on Wednesday for a meeting with President Bashar al-Assad, a diplomatic source said.

The top Iranian diplomat arrived from Jordan, which along with Lebanon he had visited as part of a regional tour, and was to hold a media conference in the Syrian capital at 1430 GMT, the source said.

Zarif’s talks with Assad come less than a week ahead of the so-called Geneva II peace conference, which is aimed at ending the conflict in Syria that has killed, according to the UN, 130,000 people in nearly three years.

Zarif had said in Beirut on Monday that countries seeking to keep Iran away from the peace conference would “regret” his country’s absence.

“Iran will participate in the upcoming Geneva 2 talks on Syria if it is invited without any preconditions. However, we are not seeking this invitation.”

During his visit to Lebanon on Monday, Zarif met several Lebanese officials as well as Hezbollah Secretary General Sayyed Hasan Nasrallah,.