New Syrian Foreign Affairs Chief Visits Tehran and Moscow

The Russian foreign ministry has said people should not look for “political motives” behind the decision of new Syrian Foreign Minister Faisal al-Miqdad to visit his counterparts in Tehran before those in Moscow.

Al-Miqdad, a veteran diplomat, was appointed the Assad regime’s Minister of Foreign Affairs in late November after the death of long-serving foreign minister Walid al-Muallem. He is known to be a strong advocate of strengthening ties between the Syrian state, Russia and Iran.

He made his first foreign visit on December 7, meeting with his Iranian counterpart, Mohammad Javad Zarif, and other officials including Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, an ex-IRGC air commander and current speaker of the Iranian parliament, in Tehran. He also met Ali Akbar Velayati, advisor to the Supreme Leader on international affairs, and Ali Shamkhani, secretary of the Supreme National Security Council.

At the end of his visit to Iran al-Miqdad wrote an entry in the Iranian Ministry of Defense's open condolences register for the assassinated nuclear scientist Mohsen Fakhrizadeh. He was received in making this gesture by Iranian Defense Minister Brigadier General Amir Hatami and other military officials, according to the Syrian regime's SANA news agency.

Al-Miqdad was due to visit Moscow on December 17. Russian military spokeswoman Maria Zakharova explained this was due to changes in the schedule of al-Miqdad’s Russian counterpart, Sergey Lavrov, which had postponed an earlier meeting. She added that people should not look for "political motives behind Al-Miqdad's decision to choose Tehran and not Moscow as the destination for his first foreign visit", and warned journalists against drawing “far-reaching conclusions”.

A statement by the Russian Foreign Ministry said that on December 17 the two parties would exchange views on pressing issues on the international and regional agenda. Special attention, according to Russian news agency Sputnik, would be paid to prospects for “development” in Syria including post-conflict reconstruction, and assistance in the returning of Syrian refugees and displaced people to the country.