MOSCOW, October 27. /TASS/. Russian and Iranian Foreign Ministers, Sergey Lavrov and Javad Zarif, discussed over the phone ways of settling the Syrian crisis, the Russian foreign ministry said on Tuesday.

"The sides continued discussion of possible ways of settling the Syrian crisis with a focus on urgent steps towards establishing an intra-Syrian political dialogue," the ministry said, adding that the conversation had been initiated by the Iranian side. "The two diplomats stressed that there is no alternative to promoting this process by all key countries of the region."

Lavrov and Zarif have been staying in close contact on the Syrian settlement in the recent days. They had telephone conversation on October 24 and 26, which were preceded by a meeting between foreign ministers of Russia, the United States, Saudi Arabia and Turkey in Vienna on October 23 that was also focused on Syrian settlement. After that meeting, the Russian foreign minister said it was necessary to expand the circle of external players to promote the settlement. He named Iran and Egypt as candidates number one to join the Vienna format.