Iran’s FM, UN chief discuss Syria on phone

Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif and United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon in a telephone conversation discussed Syria’s status quo. During the Phone Conversation on Sunday, Zarif and Ban underlined the need for a peaceful solution to the Syrian crisis and holding of national dialogue in the Muslim country. The Iranian foreign minister condemned the use of chemical weapons as well as the use of force and military intervention in Syria, and said, “Military intervention in Syria will have detrimental and wide-scale consequences which might go beyond control.” The Iranian foreign minister said that Iran will do its best to help find a peaceful way out of the current turmoil. The UN secretary general, for his part underlined the need to resolve the Syrian crisis through diplomatic means. The US and other western countries have adopted the rhetoric of war against Syria over allegations that the Syrian government was behind a recent chemical attack near Damascus. The call for military strike intensified after the militants operating inside Syria and the foreign-backed Syrian opposition claimed on August 21 that hundreds had been killed in a government chemical attack on militant strongholds in the Damascus suburbs of Ain Tarma, Zamalka and Jobar. The Syrian government has strongly denied the claim, accusing the militants of the attack.