Berlin, Nov 11, IRNA - Former Iranian deputy foreign minister Sadegh Kharrazi highlighted a joint Iranian, French and Russia initiative aimed at settling the Syrian conflict.

Speaking at the Berlin Foreign Policy Forum on the future of the Middle East, Kharrazi said this plan was the only way to resolve the Syrian crisis.

Referring to the upcoming visit by Iranian President Hassan Rouhani to France, Kharrazi said Paris could be the venue for unveiling this trilateral initiative.

He addded unlike Europe and the US, France and Russia did know the Middle East rather well and could therefore help find a solution to the Syrian conflict.

These three countries can create a new atmsophere of common undestanding on how to resolve the Syrian issue, Kharrazi added.

The former Iranian ambassador to France hailed the ongoing Syrian talks in Vienna as 'the only way for a constructive approach' geared at settling the conflict.

Vienna is a good and very positive step forward and we support it, Kharrazi said.

He insisted any talks on settling the Syrian issue should not include any preconditions, including demands for Syrian President Bashar Assad to step down.

Kharrazi stressed Iran's position in the Vienna talks on Syria has been consistently 'very transparent.'

'We are ready to participate in any plan for a solution on Syria. Iran is interested in the stability and territorial integrity of Syria. Election is the only way for a solution in that country,' the ex-Iranian dipomat reiterated.

He pointed out the Syrian conflict was not a civil war but a war where a democratically elected Syrian government was actually combating terrorist groups like Daesh, al-Qaeda and the Al-Nusra Front.

By IRNA