In a telephone conversation on Tuesday, Shamkhani and his Russian counterpart, Nikolai Patrushev, exchanged views on a range of issues, including the latest developments in Syria, the process of Tehran-Moscow cooperation to help resolve the Arab country’s crisis, and the upcoming Syria peace talks in the Kazakh capital of Astana.
Shamkhani further referred to some “adventurous moves” by Washington in Syria and called for closer cooperation between Iran and Russia to prevent further US meddling in the Arab country.
“Boosting coordination between Iran and Russia to prevent the US from interfering in Syria illegally and undermining the country’s territorial integrity and sovereignty is an inevitable necessity in the course of Tehran-Moscow cooperation,” he stressed.
Patrushev, for his part, pointed to the pace talks in Astana and stressed the need to boost coordination between the Islamic Republic and the Russian Federation with the aim of determining mechanisms for deployment of forces to monitor the ongoing ceasefire in Syria.
According to Kazakh Foreign Ministry Spokesman Anuar Zhainakov, all of the delegations scheduled to take part in the peace talks in Astana have arrived in the Kazakh capital.
“To this moment, all delegations which participate in the Astana process have arrived in the Kazakh capital, including the representatives of the Syrian armed opposition,” Zhainakov told reporters on Tuesday.
He added that the delegations will hold negotiations in the bilateral format on Tuesday, while on Wednesday a plenary session will take place.
The fifth round of the talks, which are aimed at securing a lasting ceasefire in the war-ravaged Arab country, will conclude on Wednesday.
Iran and Russia, along with Turkey, a backer of the Syrian government’s armed opponents, signed a deal to establish safe zones in Syria in the previous round of talks in May.
The three countries, which are guarantors of an ongoing ceasefire covering most of Syria, held consultations in Astana on Monday.
