DHAKA: Iranian foreign minister Mohammad Javad Zarif and his deputies will attend talks on the war in Syria held in Vienna.

Iran’s semi-official ISNA news agency reported, says Al Jazeera.

‘We have reviewed the invitation, and it was decided that the foreign minister would attend the talks,’ foreign ministry spokeswoman Marzieh Afkham said on Wednesday.

‘Deputy Foreign Ministers Hossein Amir Abdollahian, Abbas Araqchi and Majid Takht Ravanchi will accompany Zarif on this trip.’

The meeting is set for Friday in the Austrian capital.

On Tuesday, the US state department said that Tehran, a key ally of Damascus, would be invited to participate in the talks.

In an interview with Al Jazeera, Iranian journalist Ghanbar Naderi said the increasing number of deaths of Iranian soldiers in Syria may have prompted Tehran to join the negotiations.

‘The soldiers in Syria are not normal people, they are the top commanders from the IRGC and (Iranian) elite forces,’ he said.

‘Losing these key people in Syria, it is definitely under pressure. I think if Iran is accepting the dialogue, to now sit next to the international community, to find a way out of the Syrian crisis by dialogue and politics, I think it’s because it doesn’t want to lose any more commanders.’

Tehran officially denies it has combat troops in Syria. But there have been reports that 18 high-ranking officers have been killed in Syria in the last three years.

Iran has also spent billions of dollars in the past four years to keep Syrian President Bashar al-Assad in power, with hundreds of its troops on the ground.

BDST: 2104 HRS, OCT 28, 2015
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** Iran to be invited to Syria talks: US