Riyadh, Not Tehran, Destabilizing Region: Iran’s FM Zarif

“Irony is KSA accuses Iran of destabilization, while itself fuels terrorists, wages war on Yemen, blockades Qatar & foments crisis in Lebanon,” Zarif said in a message posted on his official Twitter account on Sunday.

In the first part of his tweet, the Iranian minister referred to a meeting with his Russian and Turkish counterparts Sergei Lavrov and Mevlut Cavusoglu in the Turkish city of Antalya earlier on Sunday, saying, “Working with Turkish & Russian counterparts to build on ceasefire we achieved in Syria & preparing for inclusive dialog among Syrians”.

The three ministers convened on Sunday in Antalya to discuss the results of expert-level talk on the settlement of Syria crisis.

Iran, Russia and Turkey have so far held seven rounds of peace talks in Kazakhstan to help end the conflict in Syria. The fourth round of those talks in May produced a memorandum of understanding on de-escalation zones in Syria, sharply reducing fighting in the country.

Diplomatic efforts to end fighting in Syria gained momentum in 2017 with the announcement of a ceasefire in the Arab country in early January.

According to a report by the Syrian Center for Policy Research, the conflict has claimed the lives of over 470,000 people, injured 1.9 million others, and displaced nearly half of the country’s pre-war population of about 23 million within or beyond its borders.