Iran, EU affirm readiness to help solve crisis in Syria
Iranian President Hassan Rouhani underlined Sunday that Iran and European Union can conduct dialogue and cooperation on regional issues, among them the crisis in Syria and combating terrorism.
President Rouhani, meeting High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs & Security of European Commission Catherine Ashton, said dialogue with the EU on different issues of the Middle East can solve very critical causes.
For his part, Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif affirmed during a meeting with Ashton that dialogue is the only best way to resolve crisis in Syria, adding “the Syrian people alone will determine their future”.
Later, Speaker of the Iranian Shura Council Ali Larijani also affirmed his country’s commitment to help solve the crisis in Syria in cooperation with the European Union.
Larijani, during a meeting with the EU senior official, said that in order to solve the crisis in Syria, the issue doesn’t need options like the military one, or supplying terrorists with weapons and money, but the opportunity should be given to Syrian people through a gradual, calm process to deepen democracy in society.
“When we talk about democracy in Middle East, there should ne no difference between a country and another,” Larijani added.
Ashton, for her part, said challenges in the region, among them crisis in Syria, terrorism and drugs are of the issues that the EU and Iran can solve through joint efforts. She added that priority should be given now to the crisis in Syria and the delivering of humanitarian aid to the country.
In the same context, Ali Akbar Velayati, Advisor to the Islamic Revolution leader in Iran, called for stopping export of terrorism to Syria and expelling mercenary terrorists from it, referring to the failure of US and western polices in Syria.
Velayati said in a statement following his meeting with Ashton that Syria is determined to combating terrorism, calling for activating the inter-Syrian dialogue away from any foreign intervention.
