Senior Assistant to Iranian Foreign Minister for Political Affairs Hossein Jabri Ansari arrived in Geneva to attend a meeting of UN committee tasked with preparing Syria’ future constitution.

The UN Syria envoy Staffan de Mistura has been tasked with setting up a committee to draw up a new constitution for the war-torn Syria.

In addition to de Mistura, Jaberi Ansari will hold multilateral and bilateral meetings with Russian President Vladimir Putin’s Special Envoy for Syria Alexander Lavrentiev, as well as Turkey’s representative in the talks on Syria Sedat Onal, to confer on ways for facilitating the formation of a Syrian constitutional committee.

The representatives of the three guarantors of the Syrian ceasefire – Russia, Iran and Turkey, will hold a meeting with the UN envoy on Monday to discuss ways to assist the Syrian parties in organizing the committee’s activities.

In the meeting which took place on Saturday afternoon at the Iranian Foreign Ministry complex in Tehran, Hossein Jaberi Ansari said that putting an end to the crisis in Syria is one of Iran’s priorities in the region.

Humanitarian issues have always been of great importance to Iran during Syrian crisis and Iran has always been clear and transparent with its policy toward Syria, Jaberi Ansari said.

Stating that Iran, as one of the victims of chemical weapons, strongly opposes any use of such weapons in any conflict, the Iranian foreign minister senior assistant added that Iran is, at the same time, strongly opposed to some countries’ use of chemical attacks as a tool to realize their failed objectives.

Hailing the Astana Process on Syria, Jaberi Ansari said “Iran has always called for dialogue among Syrians and has always supported negotiations between the Syrian government and the opposition groups.”

He also expressed Iran’s readiness to cooperate with European countries and Britain to help end the ongoing crises in Syria and Yemen as soon as possible.

Martin Longden, for his part, expressed his concern over the current situation and future of Idlib province and the possible use of chemical weapons in this region.

He also welcomed Iran-Britain cooperation on the Syrian crisis and expressed his country’s readiness to help put an end to the Syrian crisis and restore stability to the war-torn country.

Hossein Jaberi Ansari, the top Aide to Foreign Minister Zarif in Political Issues who also serves as the Special Envoy of Iran for Syrian Peace talks, arrived in Russian resort city of Sochi on Monday.

The Iranian senior diplomat is heading a diplomatic delegation slated to attend the International Syria Peace Conference on Monday and Tuesday.

Mr. Jaberi Ansari is also scheduled to hold a bilateral talk with Sedat Onal, the Deputy Undersecretary for Foreign Affairs of Turkey, on Monday evening. He will also hold another meeting with the Russian president’s special envoy for Syria Alexander Lavrentiev on the same day. Iran, Russia, and Turkey are the three guarantor states which initiated the Astana format peace talks for Syrian crisis.

In addition to meeting with Russian and Turkish top envoys for Syrian crisis, the Iranian diplomat will also meet with Staffan de Mistura, United Nations Special Envoy for Syria on the first day of his stay in Sochi.

It is the 10th round of Astana format international meeting on Syria and the main focus of this round of conference is facilitating the return of the dislocated refugees to home and holding of the constitution committee of Syria.

During the Monday talks, Jaberi Ansari said the Islamic Republic of Iran believes the success of its joint efforts with signatories to the JCPOA in order to preserve this multilateral international agreement and see Iran fully reap the benefits of the deal is a success for all countries in the region and in the world in countering the United States’ policy of unilateralism.

Jaberi Ansari further presented a report on Iran’s efforts within the framework of Astana talks to settle the political crisis in Syria. He also stressed that while major gains have been achieved in fighting terrorism, it is necessary to pay attention to the political and humanitarian dimensions of the Syria crisis.

He also said Iran and the other parties involved in the Astana talks will continue their constructive cooperation in the current stage to facilitate the process for the Syrian Constitutional Committee to begin work and speed up the return of Syrian refugees to their homeland.

Jaberi Ansari also touched upon the meetings he had with the Lebanese president and parliament speaker, and said he conveyed a message from Iranian President Hassan Rouhani to his Lebanese counterpart Michel Aoun.

Bassil, in turn, referred to the pressures put on the regional countries, including Iran and Lebanon, saying the pressures are aimed at “securing domination over us.”

The top Lebanese diplomat touched upon Lebanon’s victories over Israel in 2000 and 2006 as well as the triumph over Takfiri terrorism which has benefitted Tel Aviv the most. Under the current circumstances, he said, the regional countries should stand by one another and against animosities.