Iran says ready to send ‘peace forces’ to Syria

By Murat Karadag

ISTANBUL

Iran said Monday it was ready to send "peace forces" to Syria to observe the ceasefire in the war-torn country.

Foreign Ministry spokesman Bahram Qassemi said talks between Iran, Turkey and Russia were ongoing with a view to maintaining the ceasefire in the four "de-escalation" zones in Syria.

"In this regard, we are ready to send peace forces to strengthen the ceasefire in the region after the roadmap is determined and necessary agreement is reached,” he said in a weekly press conference in Tehran.

Syria has been locked in a vicious civil war since early 2011, when the Bashar al-Assad regime cracked down on pro-democracy protests -- which erupted as part of the Arab Spring uprisings -- with unexpected ferocity.

Since then, more than a 250,000 people have been killed and more than 10 million displaced across the war-torn country, according to the UN.

Iran has been supporting the Assad regime during the war while Russia intervened in Assad's favor in September 2015.

Peace talks were launched in Geneva in 2012 for finding a political solution to the conflict. On May 4, Russia, Turkey and Iran signed a deal in the Kazakh capital, Astana, to establish "de-escalation" zones in Syria.

During the six-year conflict, the Assad regime has been accused many times by many international actors of targeting Syrian civilians by chemical weapons.

Reporting by Murat Karadag; Writing by Sibel Ugurlu