TEHRAN - Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif and his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov held phone talks late on Tuesday to explore ways for resolving the conflict in Syria.

The talks took place one day before Iran was invited to attend the meeting on the Syrian conflict in Vienna.

“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 Russian Foreign Ministry said in a statement.

The conversation was initiated by the Iranian side, according to Danakhabar.

“The two diplomats stressed that there is no alternative to promoting this process by all key countries of the region,” the statement added.

Lavrov and Zarif also 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 which also focused on Syria.

After the Vienna meeting, Lavrov stressed it was necessary to expand the circle of external players to promote the settlement and named Iran and Egypt as top candidates to join the group.

SP/P