Iranian FM Meets Assad in Syria Ahead of New Round of Peace Talks

Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif met with Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad in Damascus, ahead of scheduled peace talks next week in Kazakhstan aimed at ending the eight-years-long war. Iran and Russia, whose respective military interventions in Syria are credited with saving the Assad regime, are the main sponsors of the so-called Astana negotiations, which also include key rebel backer Turkey. The three countries, in conjunction with Damascus, have held numerous rounds of discussions that over the past few years resulted in various cease-fires and the creation of buffer zones throughout Syria. The negotiations have taken place in parallel to a United Nations-sponsored, Vienna-based process that, in the eyes of many, was torpedoed by infighting between Syrian opposition groups. During his trip, Zarif accused the United States of “launching wars and economic terrorism” against regional nations; this, on the backdrop of Washington’s official designation this week of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps as a “foreign terrorist organization.” Zarif also revealed that the Astana talks would focus on northwestern Idlib Province, which an al-Qai’da-linked group controls almost entirely and where a “safe zone” was established along Syria’s border with Turkey.