Hossein Jaberi Ansari, Iranian Foreign Minister’s Special Assistant in Political Affairs, met on Monday with Russian President Putin’s Special Envoy for Syria Alexander Lavrentiev, in Russian resort port city of Sochi and the two diplomats exchanged views on the latest developments in the region relevant to Syrian National Congress which is scheduled to kick off on Tuesday in Sochi.

Later on the same day, Mr. Jaberi Ansari is slated to represent the Islamic Republic of Iran at the trilateral meeting of the Astana Peace Process Guarantor States joining the envoys from Russia and Turkey.

He will also represent the Islamic Republic of Iran at the Syrian national congress of peace in Sochi on Tuesday.

On the sidelines of the congress in Sochi, Mr. Jaberi Ansari is hoping to meet with some Syrian figures attending the event to exchange views with.

The UN Special Envoy for Syria, Staffan de Mistura, is among the figures who have arrived in Sochi early on Monday to attend the Tuesday meeting.

Deputy FM Hossein Jaberi Ansari who heads Iranian delegation at the Syrian settlement negotiations in Astana told Mehr News correspondent that “the military and operational objectives of ISIL terrorists are heading toward failure,” as major parts of occupied lands in Iraq and Syria have been already liberated from ISIL.

“The ideology and political objectives of these terrorist groups will remain, however,” he stressed.

He went on to add, “once militarily defeated, these terrorists will try to find other ways to carry out anti-security measures to destabilize countries, therefore it is imperative for regional governments to keep vigilant in order to contain them.”

Jaberi Ansari noted four levels of combating terrorism, including 1) ideological and cultural, 2) economic and social, 3) security and intelligence, and 4) military and field operations, stressing that all these four levels must be utilized for an effective fight against terrorism.

The Iranian diplomat went on to add, “one of the factors responsible for the escalation of extremism in region and beyond is the intentional policy and strategic mistake of certain regional and international actors for making instrumental use of terrorism to achieve their political goals.”

Jaberi Ansari further stressed that the formation of a regional or international coalition against terrorism and putting a stop to the instrumental use of terrorism can help expedite the eradication of extremist and extremist groups.