© Iran FM Mohammad Javad Zarif • Syrian President Bashar Assad, EPA/azertac/APIran FM Mohammad Javad Zarif • Syrian President Bashar Assad
The country's official government news agency IRNA said Mohammad Javad Zarif met with Assad in the Syrian capital, Damascus, on April 20, but no further details were released.
Ahead of the visit, the Iranian Foreign Ministry said the talks were expected to touch on bilateral relations, regional developments, and the "fight against terrorism."
Iran is Syria's closest ally in the region. Along with Russia, Tehran has provided crucial military support to Assad during the country's civil war, which entered its 10th year last month. More than 400,000 people have been killed and millions displaced since the conflict began.
The civil war has devastated Syria's health system, and aid workers and rights activists have warned the government is incapable of preventing the coronavirus from spreading.
For weeks, government officials denied any threat, allowing Shi'ite pilgrims from Iran and Iraq to visit shrines near Damascus. Fighters, allied with the Syrian military, traveled back and forth from those countries.
By early March, restrictions began with a partial closure of borders and shrines.
Syria's official count is 39 infections and three deaths, all in or around Damascus, though most experts believe the number is far higher.
Comment: The civil war in Syria became an 'external power' free-for-all which included the ruin of medical facilities throughout the country. Coronavirus is but another tactic to cause extreme fear and societal repercussions. Between a virus and self-serving manufactured terror, murder and destruction, there is no question which of these rank more deadly to the Syrian people.