Lebanese FM hails Iran’s \'positive role\' in Middle East

Lebanese Foreign Minister Adnan Mansour underlined that Iran has played a constructive role in resolving the problems of the Middle East. “European and Western countries have realized that it is impossible to solve the problems of regional countries without drawing on Iran’s positive role,” Mansour said in a meeting with Iranian Ambassador to Beirut Qazanfar Roknabadi on Thursday. The Iranian ambassador, for his part, briefed the Lebanese foreign minister about Iran’s stance on the latest regional and international developments, specially Syria. “The Islamic Republic of Iran has, from the outset, emphasized the ineffectiveness of military measures in Syria, and considers a political settlement as the only correct and logical solution, and it remains committed to find a political solution,” Roknabadi said. “Iran believes that violence in Syria must be stopped and that it would be impossible to achieve this goal without ending the supply of money and weapons from outside to Syria,” the Iranian envoy added. 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. Syria has been experiencing unrest since March 2011 with organized attacks by well-armed gangs against the Syrian police, border guards, statesmen, army and civilians being reported across the country. Thousands of people have been killed since terrorist and armed groups turned protest rallies into armed clashes. The government blames outlaws, saboteurs, and armed terrorist groups for the deaths, stressing that the unrest is being orchestrated from abroad.