Mohammad Javad Zarif

Photo: Reuters

Russia, Syria, and Iran warned the United States against launching new strikes on Syria and called for an international probe into a chemical attack there earlier this month.

The United States and Russia have exchanged words over the six-year-old Syrian war, with relations between the two states suffering a downturn before the foreign ministers of the two world powers meet tomorrow. 

The Munich Security Conference has started in Munich on Feb. 17 with top world leaders, diplomats and defense officials getting their first opportunity to meet with members of the U.S. President Donald Trump's administration amid concerns over the new president's commitment to NATO and posture toward Russia.

Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said on Feb. 7 that he was grateful to U.S. President Donald Trump for revealing "the real face of America." 

"We are thankful to this gentleman... he showed the real face of America," Khamenei said in a speech to military officers in Tehran.

Iran and the United States have engaged in a war over the 140-character social media platform of Twitter amid escalating tension between the two countries that began with an Iranian missile test launch over the weekend.

Iran on Tuesday warned the United States against "creating new tensions" over its ballistic missile tests as Washington called for urgent talks at the UN Security Council on the issue.

Iranian officials said Jan. 18 that they were strongly opposed to the United States joining Syrian peace talks in Kazakhstan next week, local media reported.

"We are hostile to their presence and we have not invited them," Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said late Jan. 17, according to the Tasnim news agency, AFP reported.  

The foreign ministers of Iran, Russia and Syria will meet in on Oct. 28 for three-way over the situation in Syria, the Iranian Foreign Ministry said.

Iran's Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif is expected to also hold a one-to-one meeting with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Bahram Ghasemi said late Oct. 26.

Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif visited Ankara on Sept. 28, in an unscheduled trip to the capital on his way back to Tehran from a visit to New York for the U.N. General Assembly, and discussed the Syrian crisis with Turkish officials, diplomatic sources told Hürriyet Daily News.

Iran has so far seen only around $3 billion in previously frozen assets returned since it struck a nuclear deal with world powers, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said April 18.

The extent to which Tehran stands to gain from the agreement to place its nuclear program under tight controls has been a matter of fierce debate since Iran signed the accord last year.