Zarif in Damascus for the last arrangements before the upcoming Tehran summit

Tabnak – As the presidents of Iran, Russia and Turkey are expected to meet in Tehran on Friday to discuss the Syrian issue, diplomatic activities regarding the Arab country have considerably increased. In this vein, Iran’s foreign minister is in Damascus to discuss with the Syrian officials the latest military and political developments.

Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif is in Syria for high-profile meetings, a week after the Iranian defense minister travelled to the Arab country amid the Syrian army’s preparation for attacking Idlib, the last stronghold of terrorists in the north.

Zarif arrived in Damascus on Monday morning heading a diplomatic delegation, at the invitation of his Syrian counterpart Walid Muallem. The top Iranian diplomat is planned to hold meetings with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and Prime Minister Imad Khamis on Tehran-Damascus relations and the latest developments in Syria.

Speaking to reporters upon his arrival in the Syrian capital, Zarif said that Idlib must be cleansed of terrorists and returned to the government fold. "Terrorists operating in the remaining parts of Idlib must be cleansed, and the region be returned to the people of Syria," he said.

“Syria’s territorial integrity must be preserved. All ethnicities and groups in Syria should begin the process of reconstruction within a single unit under the Syrian flag. All those displaced should return home, and the remnants of terrorists in the remaining regions of Idlib must be flushed out of those areas and the region (Idlib) must fall into the hands of Syrian people,” Zarif said.

The Iranian minister added that it is necessary to talk to the “Syrian friends” about the upcoming conference in Tehran in the pursuit of a lasting solution to peace in Syria through political approaches, like what the Astana process is looking for.

Tehran will on Friday host a summit of the Iranian, Russian and Turkish presidents following several meetings between the three countries’ foreign ministers. Iran, Russia and Turkey are known as the three guarantors of a ceasefire in Syria’s de-escalation zones.

In this vein, speaking to the Izvestiya newspaper, Yury Ushakov pointed to the agenda of the Tehran summit, due to be held on Friday, September 7, and said the trilateral meeting will cover a wide range of issues related to the settlement of the Syrian crisis and aggravating points, including preparations for provocative moves through using chemical weapons in a residential area of Idlib Province.

In April, the presidents of Iran, Russia and Turkey - the three guarantor states of de-escalation zones in Syria - held a meeting in Ankara to discuss ways for peaceful settlement of the crisis in Syria.

The three countries have so far held several rounds of peace talks in Kazakhstan’s Astana and elsewhere to help end the conflict in Syria. The fourth round of those talks in May 2017 produced a memorandum of understanding on de-escalation zones in Syria, sharply reducing fighting in the country.