Local Editor

Iran's Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif traveled to Moscow, where he is set to join trilateral talks on the situation in Syria with his Russian and Syrian counterparts.

Zarif headed for the Russian capital on Friday at the invitation of his Russian opposite number Sergei Lavrov.

Upon arrival, he is to meet with Lavrov before the two start discussions with Syria's Foreign Minister Walid al-Muallem.

The core of negotiations would be focusing on the latest developments in the Arab country as well as searching for "integrated way" towards resolving the deadly 6-year crisis there.

Zarif's talks are likely to be centered around the recent suspected chemical attack on Khan Sheikhoun in Syria, which left 89 people dead.

Last October, the three top diplomats held similar talks in the Russian capital.

During the previous round, the trio emphasized the need for unyielding fight against terrorism and working towards the resumption of UN-brokered Syria talks in Geneva, which started last year before breaking down.

In December 2016, Moscow also hosted a meeting of foreign and defense ministers of Russia, Iran and Turkey on the Syria crisis.

The Moscow talks resulted in more concerted cooperation against terrorists in Syria and laid the groundwork for intra-Syrian talks in the Kazakh capital of Astana.

There had been three rounds of the Astana talks where the Syrian government had talked with the country's political and armed opposition with Iran, Russia, and Turkey as mediators.

Iran had been lending Syria military advisory support against the foreign-backed militancy, which had been tugging at the country since 2011. Russia had also been backing up the Syrian army's anti-terror fight with airstrikes since last September.

The three foreign ministers are to join one another in Moscow, only days after the US struck western Syria, accusing Damascus of an alleged gas attack against the Arab country's northeast.

The US attack had placed Washington and Moscow, which support opposing sides in Syria, on a collision course.

Moscow had, ever since, been warning Washington against repeating such strikes, and urging it to rather join it in a broad anti-terror coalition.

Iran had also condemned the missile attack, which was carried out before a fact-finding process and evaded a UN Security Council or even US Congress approval.

Source: News Agencies, Edited by website team