TEHRAN – Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdolahian and the UN Special Envoy for Syria, Staffan de Mistura, held a phone conversation on Sunday on the Geneva meeting on Syria.

De Mistura said that fight against terrorism, silencing guns, sending humanitarian aid to the civilians caught in the crossfire, and political dialogue among hostile groups are on the agenda of the Geneva talks.

He also praised Iran’s constructive role in helping fight terrorism.

Opposition groups named by Iran, Moscow and Saudi Arabia were scheduled to arrive in Geneva on Sunday, the UN official added.

Amir-Abdolahian said it is the Syrian people who should determine the future of their country and insisted on Tehran’s position that it is necessary to prevent the participation of terrorist groups in the talks.

Terrorism will have no place in Syria’s future, the Iranian point man for Middle East affairs asserted.

The Geneva meeting on Syria is backed by the UN and is aimed at ending the Syrian civil war by bringing together the Syrian government and the Syrian opposition to hold talks.

In November 2015 the U.S., Russia and other world powers including Iran set January for formal negotiations to start between the Syrian government and opposition groups.

The group set a six-month time-frame for Syria to form an interim unity government and said they wanted to see free-and-fair elections in Syria within 18 months from now.

The nearly five years of war in Syria has left hundreds of thousands dead and sparked a huge refugee exodus.

On Sunday a triple bombing claimed by Daesh killed at least 45 people near Damascus, overshadowing an already shaky start to be indirect Syria peace talks.

Syria’s state news agency SANA said that the blasts went off in Sayyda Zeinab, a predominantly Shiite Muslim suburb of the Syrian capital. SANA said attackers detonated a car bomb at a bus stop and that two suicide bombers set off more explosives as rescuers rushed to the area.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, an opposition group that monitors both sides of the conflict through a network of activists inside Syria, said at least 47 people were killed in the explosions, and that the death toll was expected to rise because a number of people were seriously wounded.

A Daesh-affiliated website said the blasts were carried out by members of the extremist group, which controls large areas in both Syria and Iraq, the USA Today reported.

The talks got off to a rocky start Friday, with de Mistura meeting only with a Syrian government delegation.

NA/PA