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Russia FM urges Iran, Egypt, Qatar, UAE, Jordan to take part in resolving Syrian crisis

Attempts to create an external circle supporting the Syrian settlement without Iran are hopeless, says Sergey Lavrov
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov ITAR-TASS/Alexei Nikolsky
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov
© ITAR-TASS/Alexei Nikolsky

MOSCOW, October 22. /TASS/. Iran, Egypt, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates and Jordan should participate in the resolution of the Syrian crisis, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said in an interview with Rossiya TV channel on Thursday.

Answering a question of whether he considers Russia-USA-Turkey-Saudi Arabia format sufficient for talks on Syria, Lavrov said he does not think so. "When agreeing for this format [meeting in Vienna with participation of foreign ministers of Russia, US, Saudi Arabia and Turkey], we said again that we are confident that attempts to create an external circle supporting the Syrian settlement without Iran are hopeless," Lavrov said.

"And we are, of course, confident that under current circumstances, it is principally important to include into this group such countries as Egypt, Qatar, UAE, Jordan," he added.

The foreign minister added that some of these countries "may be in Vienna tomorrow, but in parallel meetings." "They expressed desire to talk to us. We are ready for that," he concluded.