Austria renews rejection of military intervention, Vatican calls for dialogue in Syria

Austrian State Secretary for Foreign Affairs, Reinhold Lopatka, stressed his country's rejection of any military intervention in Syria. Lopatka's remarks came during his meeting with the Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif in Tehran Sunday. He underlined the importance of cooperation among the states of the region and the world to prevent the spread of extremism and its repercussions on all states as quoted bythe Iranian IRNA News Agency. For his part, Zarif stressed his country's readiness to cooperate with European states on the bilateral, regional and international issues, particularly for boosting stability and security in the region. Vatican Ambassador to Iran: We call for dialogue in Syria In another context, the new Vatican Ambassador to Iran stressed during his meeting with Zarif the importance of dialogue and cooperation for solving the crisis in Syria and the regional crises, in addition to the need for cooperation for lifting the sanctions imposed on Iran. The Iranian Minister said "We are worried about the situation of the Syrian people including the religious minorities in light of extremist and terrorist acts witnessed in their country." He referred to the next stage of religion dialogue among Iran and the Vatican intellectuals, expressing his country's support for starting with a new stage of this sort of dialogues.