TALKS on a resolution of the Syrian civil war got under way in Vienna yesterday, with Iranian representatives attending for the first time.

Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif attended the negotiations after the United States agreed to extend an invitation to the key regional player.

But Syria itself remained excluded from the discussion, in which rebel-backers the US, Britain, France, Saudi Arabia and Turkey are demanding that President Bashar al-Assad’s government must be overthrown before there can be peace.

Iran and Russia, whose military intervention on September 30 has turned the tide of the conflict, insist that peace can only be negotiated with Damascus.

Western-backed Syrian National Coalition member Bassam Abdullah insisted yesterday that there was no role for Mr Assad in a political transition, echoing comments by Saudi Foreign Minister Adel al-Jubeir the day before.

Syrian Information Minister Omran al-Zoubi responded by branding Mr Jubeir a “tumor” and a “servant” who should keep quiet.

Russian presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov rejected suggestions that Moscow would halt military support for Syria’s government in return for the lifting of Western sanctions that were imposed following the Western-backed coup in Ukraine.

“We ruled out any kind of swaps in this matter. An approach like this is absolutely out of place,” Mr Peskov told reporters.

“Russia has been aiding the Syrian authorities in their fight against terrorism and extremism in its own interest.”

Meanwhile, Russia’s Foreign Ministry warned that Islamic State (Isis) had acquired chemical weapons and was behind attacks often blamed on Damascus.Department for non-proliferation and arms control director Mikhail Ulyanov said: “All data show that Isis has indeed gained access to technologies of manufacturing chemical weapons.”

Doctors Without Borders (MSF) said that 35 medical staff and patients had been killed in air strikes on 12 hospitals in the last month.

International Committee of the Red Cross director of operations Dominik Stillhart said his organisation’s people in Syria had not reported any attacks on their hospitals by Russian aircraft.

US forces in Afghanistan and the Saudi-led coalition in Yemen both bombed MSF hospitals this month.