Stop the violence in Syria before talks, says Iran

Having been long-sidelined on global platforms, Iran on Thursday said it wants to engage with different countries in the world and declared that its nuclear energy programme would never be used for nuclear weapons. Speaking at the World Economic Forum annual meeting here, the first major global platform after initiation of talks between Iran and the US recently, Iran’s President Hassan Rouhani said his nation never desired to have a nuclear weapon and it would never desire to have one in future as well. He further said that Syria has been engaged in a major catastrophe and Iran was very sad about such acts. ‘Iran believes that everyone should first try to put a full stop to this violence in Syria and then work on an agenda after talking with everyone. We are helping Syrians and everyone should contribute to help them,’ he added.

‘Peace in Middle East is very important and this goes beyond economic issues. Regional cooperation has become very important with us, we intend to open trade and industrial relations with all our neighbours and countries in central Asia.