Syrian President Bashar al-Assad met the foreign minister of Iran in Damascus on Wednesday, official news agency SANA said.

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad met the foreign minister of Iran in Damascus on Wednesday, official news agency SANA said.

"President Assad is meeting Mohammad Javad Zarif, foreign minister of the Islamic Republic of Iran, and his delegation," Syria's SANA reported.

Zarif's talks with Assad come less than a week ahead of the so-called Geneva II peace conference, which is aimed at ending the conflict in Syria that has killed, according to the UN, 130,000 people in nearly three years.

Earlier, SANA had quoted Zarif as saying the purpose of his visit "was to help ensure that the Geneva II conference on Syria brings about results that are in the interests of the Syrian people."

Zarif also said he would "work to coordinate a position... that would restore calm and security to Syria," while urging "all parties to battle extremism and terrorism, which are threats to us all."

The visiting foreign minister had been due to address the media in Damascus on Wednesday, but the press conference was cancelled, a diplomatic source said.
The top Iranian diplomat arrived from Jordan, which along with Lebanon he had visited as part of a regional tour.

He had said in Beirut on Monday that countries seeking to keep Iran away from the peace conference would "regret" his country's absence.

“Iran will participate in the upcoming Geneva 2 talks on Syria if it is invited without any preconditions. However, we are not seeking this invitation.”
During his visit to Lebanon on Monday, Zarif met several Lebanese officials as well as Hezbollah Secretary General Sayyed Hasan Nasrallah.