PHOTO: Syrian Deputy Foreign Minister Faisal al-Mikdad with Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif, April 2015
Syria’s Deputy Foreign Minister Faisal al-Mikdad is in Iran for discussions on Monday, as the two countries consider the next steps in the 5 1/2-year Syrian conflict.
Iran has been an essential political, economic, and military backer of the Assad regime since the Syrian uprising began in March 2011. When Russia started its aerial intervention in September 2015, Iran stepped up its involvement, putting in thousands of commanders, troops, and Iranian-led foreign militias.
The Assad regime and Iran are hoping to overrun opposition areas of Syria’s largest city Aleppo, divided since July 2012. However, there has been a pause in Russian-regime bombing of eastern Aleppo city, amid international political pressure on Moscow for complicity in President Assad’s “war crimes” with the killing of more than 600 civilians between mid-September and mid-October.
The Assad regime and Iran both want a resumption of the attacks, according to local sources, but Russia is still reviewing the situation.
Deputy Foreign Minister al-Mikdad and members of his delegation will meet Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif on Monday.
The two sides may also consider developments in Lebanon, where the veteran Christian politician Michel Aoun was selected President last week to end a two-year vacancy in the position.
Iran quickly tried to take advantage of Aoun’s alliance with Tehran’s ally Hezbollah, congratulating him and hailing the victory for “Resistance”. However, Aoun has a checkered relationship with Damascus, having been forced from the Presidency by Syrian troops in 1990.
