Russian President Vladimir Putin and his Iranian counterpart Hassan Rouhani stressed the importance to continue close cooperation on political and diplomatic settlement of the Syrian crisis during a phone conversation, according to Kremlin’s press service, .
“The Leaders also noted the importance to continue close cooperation on political and diplomatic settlement of the armed conflict in Syria,” the press service’s statement read on Sunday.
The two leaders also expressed readiness to deepen cooperation in the fight against terrorism to ensure stability in the Middle East.
“Particular importance was paid to the key aspects of the bilateral cooperation in the sphere of counterterrorism, a readiness to deepen cooperation in order to ensure stability in the Middle East was expressed,” the statement said.
“On the initiative of the Iranian party a phone conversation between Vladimir Putin and President of the Islamic Republic of Iran Hassan Rouhani was held. … [The presidents] exchanged their views of the situation in Syria. Both parties pointed out the inadmissibility of US aggressive actions against the sovereign state in violation of the international law. Putin and Rouhani called for holding an objective, impartial investigation of all circumstances of the incident involving chemical weapons in the Syrian province of Idlib on April 4,” the statement read.
On Thursday night, the United States launched 59 Tomahawk cruise missiles at the military airfield in Al-Shayrat.
Rouhani emphasized that the US airstrikes against Syria were an attempt to strengthen terrorists and lashed out at some regional countries for their support for Washington’s move.
“We should not allow the path created in the fight against terrorism to change through some countries’ support for the recent US measure,” the Iranian president pointed out.
He reiterated Tehran’s stance that the crisis in Syria can only be solved through political and not military approaches and expressed the Islamic Republic’s readiness to hold consultation and cooperation with Russia on the battle against terrorists.
Putin, for his part, called for the strengthening of unilateral and multilateral cooperation among Iran and regional countries to fight terrorists.
Source: Websites
