Syrian people must decide own fate: Iran foreign minister

Iran’s Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi has repeated Tehran’s call for dialog as the only solution towards the return of calm to the crisis-stricken country.

“Now, Syria is in a situation that requires dialog and negotiations…We hope these negotiations begin before the moment passes,” the visiting Iranian foreign minister told a joint news conference with his Egyptian counterpart Mohammed Kamel Amr in Cairo on Thursday.

He expressed hope that regional states would meet to find a “Syrian-Syrian solution.”

Syria has been experiencing unrest since mid-March 2011. Many people, including large numbers of Army and security personnel, have been killed in the violence.

The Syrian government says that the chaos is being orchestrated from outside the country, and there are reports that a very large number of the militants fighting the Syrian government are foreign nationals.

Several international human rights organizations have accused foreign-sponsored militants of committing war crimes.