Deputy FM Reiterates Peaceful Settlement of Syrian Crisis

Amir Abdollahian elaborated on Iran's 6-point plan for solving Syrian crisis, and said, "This plan ensures peaceful resolving of crisis in Syria."

"The Islamic Republic of Iran believes the emerged problems in Syria can be solved resorting to diplomatic solutions and on that basis Iran's Six Article Plan for solving the Syrian crisis has been proposed," he told the Voice of Russia on Wednesday.

"According to this plan the transitional Syrian government must be established and this move must take place in the presence of Bashar al-Assad as the legitimate Syrian President," Amir Abdollahian said.

"The transitional government would be commissioned to hold elections in Syria and until holding those elections Bashar al-Assad would remain the president of that country," he added.

"The time for holding those elections would be set in the course of the negotiations between the current Syrian Government and those dissident Syrian groups that have not been engaged in the course of the terrorist activities in that country," Amir Abdollahian said.

The plan calls for an immediate end to violence and a start of the national dialogue. The third step is to create a reconciliation government and provide humanitarian aid to the people of Syria. The next step is the release of prisoners, who have not committed a crime against Syrians. And the final point is to allow media's full access to Syria.

Tehran has recently doubled its efforts to settle the problems in Syria which has been experiencing unrests since March 2011 with organized attacks by well-armed gangs against Syrian security forces and border guards.

On November 18, Iran hosted the Syrian National Dialogue Conference, with the motto "No to Violence, Yes to Democracy".

Over 200 Syrian religious and political figures, leaders of tribes and parties as well as representatives and leaders of the opposition groups took part in the two-day meeting in Tehran.

A number of Syrian parliament members as well as senior political figures from Sudan, Algeria, Turkey, Egypt, Lebanon, Iraq, Brazil and Zimbabwe also took part in the meeting.

This was the first time that both Syrian opposition figures and the minister of national reconciliation Ali Haidar, as the representative of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's government, discussed ways of finding a solution to the Syrian crisis.

The Islamic Republic of Iran is in favor of negotiations between the Syrian government and opposition groups to create stability in the Middle Eastern country.
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