Iran: national dialogue and democracy key to resolving Syria issue

Iran's Supreme National Security Council (SNSC) Secretary Saeed Jalili said Saturday that resumption of national dialogue and moving in the path of democracy is the key to resolving Syrian issue, the state IRIB TV reported. Commenting on a meeting on Syria to be held in Tehran on Sunday, Jalili pointed out that the meeting with the objectives of denouncing violence and acknowledging democracy is a practical initiation of the Islamic republic to end "violent measures" in the Arab state. "Those governments and political trends which do not back the process initiated by Iran are, in fact, supporting violence and against democracy in Syria" he concluded. On Saturday, Mehr news agency reported that "National Syrian Dialogue Meeting" will start on Sunday in Iran's capital of Tehran. Some 200 political representatives from Syrian ethnic groups, minorities and oppositions, along with representatives of the Syrian parliament, will attend the meeting, said the report. Tehran's meeting can be a "turning point" in Syrian conflicts and "a step forward" in establishing stability and security for the country, said Jalili who is also Iran's chief nuclear negotiator. He maintained that resistance against Israel can also serve as a unifying mechanism among different Syrian ethnic groups and political factions, according to the report. On Saturday, Iran's Foreign Minister Ali-Akbar Salehi told IRIB that the Islamic republic is optimistic about the outcomes of Tehran's meeting on Syria. He expressed hope that the meeting can pave the way for the peaceful negotiations between Syrian government and the opposition groups. The way out of the current situation in the Arab state is Syrian-Syrian model, he said, implying that the crisis in the country should be settled without the intervention of foreign states.