New York, Dec 17, IRNA – Visiting Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said Syrian people should decide their own destinies and future without preconditions and free from foreign influences.


He made the remarks while talking to reporters late Wednesday local time upon arrival in New York.

He said it was the right of every single individual in Syria to determine his own fate without pressures and influences from foreign countries.

The foreign minister said that from the very beginning of the Syria crisis Iran has reiterated the right of just Syrian people to determine the fate and future of their own country.

Despite the fact that Iran believes necessary preparations are not set for holding the new session of the Syria talks, Zarif said, it is participating in the session with full readiness to focus on various topics especially the issue of making the needed coordination to promote fight against terrorist and extremist groups in Syria.

He said Iran was in the talks also to ensure that certain terrorist groups which have blood on their hands because of massacring defenseless Syrians would not have a place in the future of the country.

Preconditions set by foreign powers are the main reason for ongoing war and bloodshed in Syria in the past four years, he added.

Iran believes that Syrians must determine their own destiny, the foreign minister said.

Zarif is to hold talks with some of his 5+1 counterparts on steps to put Iran nuclear agreement, known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), into effect on Thursday.

Zarif noted that he is going to have bilateral meeting with the Chinese and German foreign ministers Thursday evening.

The one-day gathering will be the third round of talks on resolving the Syrian crisis.

Meanwhile, Iranian foreign minister and his US counterpart John Kerry would possibly hold another meeting on the ways for implementing JCPOA in New York.

He will also have other meetings on regional and international topics.

Zarif went on to highlight the issue of Daesh access to particular financial resources like selling oil to foreign customers as well as the lack of any efforts to stop influx of foreign supporters of the terrorist groups into Iraq and Syria as among major international problems.

Referring to the Thursday meeting of the United Nations Security Council to devise a way to block Daesh financial resources, he stressed the need for a global convergence to put an end to manipulation of terrorists groups as tools by foreign policy-makers.

Major global powers are to attend the Syria talks on Friday.

By IRNA