Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has urged a ceasefire in Syria and called for internal dialogue to resolve the crisis.

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has urged a ceasefire in Syria and called for internal dialogue to resolve the crisis, Kuwait's press reported Thursday.

"The continuity of the fighting and the killing of innocent and unarmed Syrian citizens ... is unacceptable. A ceasefire must be achieved and then a dialogue started," said Ahmadinejad, cited by the daily Al-Anbaa newspaper.

Ahmadinejad rejected a Turkish proposal made earlier this month that Syrian Vice President Faruq al-Shara to replace President Assad during a transition phase in Syria.

"This means we are imposing a foreign solution on the Syrians. The solution must be Syrian and not imposed from outside and the Syrian people should decide through elections," the Iranian leader said during a visit this week to Kuwait, where he attended the Asia Cooperation Dialogue Summit.

“Every involved side in Syria should set aside enmities and disappointments and unit for the same of the future of that country, and then everyone must respect the choice of the Syrian nation,” he added.

“The Islamic Republic of Iran considers the security and stability of the regional countries as its own security and stability and throughout the course of history, Iran has been safeguarding both the security of the Persian Gulf region, and the security of its neighboring countries.”

Ahmadinejad said he had discussed the Syrian crisis with Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan during a meeting Tuesday on the sidelines of a regional summit in Azerbaijan.

"Our main goal is to achieve security and stability in Syria," Ahmadinejad said. "But the difference is on the means to achieve that goal."

Ahmadinejad said Iran will respect the choice of the Syrian people, adding that the ground must be prepared for reaching an understanding, "and this is what we told Erdogan and sought his help."

Turning to the racist Zionists, the Iranian president said, “Today the existence of the Zionist regime is to the loss of the westerners and they themselves, too, have come up with the conclusion that the present condition of their relations with the Zionists should be altered.”

Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said Wednesday his country and Iran back calls by the international envoy Lakhdar Brahimi for a ceasefire in Syria to mark the upcoming Al-Adha Muslim holiday.

Syria says it is ready to study the idea put forward by Brahimi, who is due to visit Syria on Saturday.

Turkey backs the Syrian rebels with arms and funds since the crisis in Syria started on March 2011.