TEHRAN — Ali-Asghar Khaji, the Iranian foreign minister's special assistant for political affairs, met with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad in Damascus on Monday.

Accompanied with a delegation, Khaji visited the Syrian capital on Monday morning to meet with top Syrian officials.

The meeting took place in the presence of Iran’s ambassador to Damascus and Syrian Foreign Minister Walid Muallem in the Presidential Palace on Monday.

According to Mehr, the two sides discussed cooperation among guarantors of the Astana peace process, namely Iran, Russia, and Turkey, which launched the initiative in order to put an end to the Syrian crisis.

Regional developments, including the normalization of relations between the UAE and the Zionist regime, and how to counter the move were most possibly among the topics discussed, the news agency said.

According to SANA, talks dealt with the latest developments of the political track with the approach of the meeting of the Committee of Discussing the Constitution in Geneva and viewpoints converged as President Assad affirmed that Syria will go forwards in this track in spite of the attempts of some parties to divert the committee from its tasks and the purposes of its formation and to change the mechanisms of its work.

The two sides also discussed means to enhance bilateral cooperation to face the siege imposed by the U.S. and its allies against Syria, and the possible choices to deal with it and with its repercussions with the help of the friendly and allied countries and whoever rejects the hacking practices adopted by the U.S. under fake names and titles to stifle the Syrian people.

The Iranian side underlined the importance of deepening the level of the economic cooperation between the two countries to face this siege.

The Iranian side also congratulated the Syrian people and leadership for the achievement of the latest parliamentary elections, as Khaji affirmed that holding these elections in this time proves the adherence of the Syrian people to their land and state and their keenness on participating in the important constitutional events despite all the circumstances which they are passing through.

MH/PA