Russian ambassador attends Iran-hosted Friends of Syria conference
MOSCOW. May 29 (Interfax) - Russian Ambassador to Iran Levan Jagarian and a number of Russian experts are taking part in a Friends of Syria conference, which opened in Tehran on Wednesday.
"The ambassador to Tehran and experts are representing Russia at the conference," a source in the Russian Foreign Ministry told Interfax on Wednesday.
Government workers from various countries and representatives of international organizations, among them delegates from Russia and China, are expected to attend the forum. In all, delegates from over 40 states have expressed their wish to participate.
Tehran has also invited countries traditionally supporting the Syrian opposition and rejecting the Syrian President Bashar al-Assad regime - Turkey, Saudi Arabia and Qatar - to the conference.
Iran wishes the Friends of Syria conference to represent all sides capable of assisting in the settlement of the conflict between Damascus and the Syrian opposition.
The Friends of Syria conference is supposed to generate a plan for a peace settlement of the armed conflict and to prepare the conflicting sides for the upcoming peace settlement conference in Geneva initiated by Russia and the United States.
The Iranian Foreign Ministry said earlier that the Friends of Syria conference was "expected to start a dialogue between the government and opposition [in Syria] and a search for a reasonable solution to the crisis."
