Iran deputy foreign minister to attend Vienna talks on Syria

Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister Hossein Amir Abdollahian will attend international talks on the Syrian conflict this weekend in Vienna, official IRNA news agency reported Friday.

The talks due to start Saturday will bring together 17 countries and three international bodies and are the second round of negotiations between foreign actors with a stake in Syria's war.

Iran is the main regional ally of Syria and provides President Bashar al-Assad with financial and military aid, including military advisers on the ground.

An Iranian delegation led by Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif took part in the first round of talks on October 30.

On Monday Zarif insisted that the upcoming Vienna meeting must determine which groups in Syria's four-and-a-half-year war are "terrorists" and then agree on how to proceed to end the conflict.

Zarif is not expected to be present in Vienna, as he will be accompanying President Hassan Rouhani to Italy and France on Saturday and Sunday.

"We will definitely participate in the process," spokesman Sadegh Hossein Jaberi Ansari said late Thursday.

There are red lines for Tehran which should not be crossed, namely any attempt by "foreign players" to make decisions "on behalf of the Syrian nation," he said.

Amir Abdollahian Thursday met with key Lebanese figures, including Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah.

Washington and its Arab allies want Assad to step aside as part of a solution, while Tehran and Syria's other ally Moscow insist that his fate is a matter for his own electorate.
Source: AFP