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Iran’s active diplomatic efforts are pushing the Turkey-Syria settlement to the Astana format, Armenian orientalist Armen Petrosyan said on Wednesday.

In a social media post, he referred to Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov’s statement that a “principled agreement has been reached to involve Iran in trilateral talks between Russia, Turkey and Syria.”

“This format was created following a mutual agreement between Ankara and Moscow late last year, and it’s not ruled out that it was aimed at weakening Tehran's influence in Syria, especially sought by Turkey,” Petrosyan wrote.

“Meanwhile, as a result of Iran's active diplomatic efforts, the settlement between Turkey and Syria is being moved to the Astana format.

“Incidentally, we predicted such a development and Iran's efforts to disrupt another Russian-Turkish deal at the Region program a few weeks ago in,” he added.