Lahoud hails Iran's constructive role in settlement of Syrian crisis

Former Lebanese President Emile Lahoud lauded Iran for the constructive efforts it has made to help restore peace and tranquility in Syria. Lahoud made the remarks in a meeting with Iranian Ambassador to Beirut Qazanfar Roknabadi in the Lebanese capital on Monday. "Iran and Syria have played key roles in achieving victories and are considered as the main supporters of the resistance movement," the former Lebanese president said. The Iranian ambassador to Beirut, for his part, underlined that holding national Syrian-Syrian dialogue is the best solution to the crisis in the Muslim country. Roknabadi pointed to Iran's efforts to help settle the crisis in Syria, and said, "Tehran's six-point plan for resolving the Syrian crisis and subsequent hosting of national dialogue meetings on Syria in Tehran and Damascus are among the Islamic Republic's initiatives to resolve the ongoing crisis in the Muslim country." Iranian officials have repeatedly underlined that Tehran is in favor of negotiations between the Syrian government and opposition groups to create stability in the Middle Eastern country. Last November, Iran hosted a meeting between the representatives of the Syrian government and opposition to encourage them to start talks to find a political solution to their problems. The National Dialogue Conference kicked off work in Tehran mid November with the motto of 'No to Violence, Yes to Democracy". The meeting brought together almost 200 representatives of various Syrian ethnicities, political groups, minorities, the opposition, and state officials. Syria has been experiencing unrest since March 2011 with organized attacks by well-armed gangs against Syrian police forces and border guards being reported across the country. Hundreds of people, including members of the security forces, have been killed, when some protest rallies turned into armed clashes. The government blames outlaws, saboteurs, and armed terrorist groups for the deaths, stressing that the unrest is being orchestrated from abroad. In October 2011, calm was almost restored in the Arab state after President Assad started a reform initiative in the country, but Israel, the US and its Arab allies sought hard to bring the country into chaos through any possible means. Tel Aviv, Washington and some Arab capitals have been staging various plots to topple President Bashar al-Assad, who is well known in the world for his anti-Israeli stances.