MOSCOW, January 15 (RIA Novosti) – Iran’s Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif arrived in Moscow Wednesday evening for talks ahead of an international peace conference on Syria.
Zarif will meet Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov on Thursday, six days before the opening of the conference in Montreux, Switzerland, at which Iran’s status is still undecided.
Russia is pushing for Iran to attend the Geneva-2 conference on January 22 of states aiming to negotiate a peaceful end to the civil war in Syria. No official invitation has yet been sent to Tehran.
Russia, the United States, China, France, the UK and about 30 other countries are due to attend the talks along with representatives from the United Nations, the Arab League, the European Union and the Organization of Islamic Cooperation.
Zarif traveled to Moscow from the Syrian capital Damascus where he discussed the upcoming conference with Syria’s President Bashar Assad, Iran’s IRNA news agency reported.
Syria’s Foreign Minister Walid Muallem is also scheduled to visit Moscow on Thursday.
Lavrov discussed preparations for the event in a telephone conversation with US Secretary of State John Kerry earlier Wednesday. The two men agreed to meet on the sidelines of the Montreux conference.
More than 100,000 people have been killed and 9 million people displaced since fighting broke out in Syria between government troops and armed rebels in 2011, according to the UN.
