Riyadh Against Involvement of Iran’s IRGC, Hezbollah in Syria – Saudi FM
Riyadh is against involvement of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) and the Hezbollah group in events in Syria, Saudi Foreign Minister Adel Jubeir said Wednesday.
"We believe that they have no place in Syria or in any other corner of the world," Jubeir said after talks with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov.
The Russian minister said in turn that Iran and Hezbollah are in Syria at the invitation of the Syrian government.
"We know the position of Saudi Arabia and that our approaches do not coincide, to put it softly, but we agree that the settlement of the crisis requires the participation of all Syrian parties without exception and all external players that influence these parties," Lavrov stressed.
The talks on the Syrian settlement take place on two parallel platforms, namely the UN-mediated Geneva talks and the talks in Kazakhstan's capital city of Astana. The latter are brokered by Russia, Turkey and Iran.
The latest round of the intra-Syrian talks in Geneva ended on March 31. The next round of the Geneva talks is scheduled for mid-May and will follow the talks in Astana.
Source: Sputnik