PHOTO: Defense Minister Hossein Dehghan and Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif arrive in Moscow for talks with Russia and Turkey on Tuesday

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UPDATE 1015 GMT: In a sign of possible division from Russia, a high-ranking Iranian official has condemned the UN Security Council resolution mandating international monitors in Aleppo city and other parts of Syria.

Ali Shamkhani, the secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council (SNSC), said the resolution “prioritized the evacuation of militants in Aleppo over the safe exit of civilians”.

After vetoing six Security Council resolutions on Syria since 2011, Russia worked with France to craft a text acceptable to Moscow. The compromise draft was unanimously adopted on Monday.

Shamkhani said the resolution ignored the role of the Assad regime.

ORIGINAL ENTRY: Preparing for the next stage in Syria’s 69-month conflict, Iran is staking out its position with Russia and Turkey.

On the eve of Tuesday’s talks in Moscow between Foreign and Defense Ministers of the three countries, President Rouhani called Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin to hail “further coordination among the three countries about ways to help the Syrian people”.

Iranian media gave no detail of the discussion but put out Rouhani’s declaration, “It is very important that the Syrian people feel they are not alone in the fight against terrorists.” The President also juxtaposed his concern for humanitarian assistance — despite Iran’s involvement in Russian-regime sieges — with the supposed “disregard for the innocent people” by Western countries.

The accounts declared that Putin “also stressed the importance of dispatching humanitarian aid to Syrians, saying the international community, including Iran and Russia, is obligated to protect and support the defenseless Syrian people across the country”.

The Kremlin said that Putin and Rouhani “underlined the need for joint efforts to launch a real political process aimed at a quick settlement in Syria”.

Today’s meeting in Moscow is the first trilateral session between Iran, Russia, and Turkey, but cooperation has been building for months despite the Russian-Iranian backing for the Assad regime and Ankara’s support of Syrian rebels.

Further issues have been raised by the imminent recapture of Syria’s largest city Aleppo by foreign forces — including Iranian troops and Iranian-led Iraqi and Afghan militias — alongside the Assad regime’s units. Iran appears ready to support President Assad’s ambition to crush the Syrian opposition in its remaining areas, including Idlib Province in northwest Syria; however, this could clash with Turkey’s alliance with rebels in an offensive that has taken much of Aleppo Province since August.

In between Tehran and Ankara, Russia faces the decision of backing more military operations or settling for a de facto partition of Syria which keeps President Assad in power and secures Russian influence across much of the country.

See Syria Daily, Dec 20: Russia-Iran-Turkey Confer in Moscow Today

Supreme Leader’s Organization Seizes $2.5 Million Protestant Church Property

The largest Persian-speaking Protestant community in Iran, Jama’at-e Rabbani, says its valuable property has been seized by an organization operating under the supervision of the Supreme Leader.

The Headquarters for Implementation of the Imam’s Decree was awarded the 2 1/2-acre Sharon Gardens, in the city of Karaj, by a Revolutionary Courts.

The seizure was justified on the grounds that Jama’at-e Rabbani is linked to the CIA and the “Philadelphia Church”.

“They have simply charged the community with espionage and convicted them without any evidence,” said a spokesman for Article 18, which defends the rights of Christians in Iran.

A statement by the World Assemblies of God Fellowship, which has 68 million members, expressed dismay at the confiscation and requested the return of the property.

The Headquarters for Implementation of the Imam’s Decree was established by the founder of the Islamic Republic, Rouhollah Khomeini, in 1989 to confiscate properties abandoned after the Islamic Revolution.

Sharon Gardens has been the location for many Christian youth camps and family picnics organized by the Jama’at-e Rabbani Church Council, which purchased the property in 1974. It is currently worth about 8 billion tomans (about $2.5 million).