Iran’s President Hassan Rouhani said on Tuesday that democracy was currently “not a priority” in Syria, when people in the Islamic republic’s key ally are being killed.

“Is it a priority to discuss democracy in Syria today?” Rouhani asked at a news conference with visiting Austrian President Heinz Fischer.

“Is it a priority to talk about the opposition and (government) supporters, or reforming the Syrian constitution?”

Iran is the Assad regime’s staunchest backer, providing extensive financial and military support to Syria, including military advisers and special forces fighting alongside pro-government forces on the frontlines.

Iran’s Revolutionary Guards’ elite Qods Force has also played a vital role in raising, arming and training the pro-regime National Defense Forces militia, which supplements the badly-overstretched regular Syrian forces.

In August, Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif submitted a peace plan to President Bashar al-Assad aimed at ending the four-year war.  

Rouhani said on Tuesday Syria was in “complete instability” with “millions of people displaced and hundreds of thousands killed.”

What mattered to Tehran was saving the “lives of the Syrian people” and “the return home of refugees”, he added.

“The first step is to stop the bloodshed, to establish relative security in Syria and the refugees can go home,” said Rouhani, insisting that starting with a “wrong first step” would mean failure.

“Then we can talk about Syria’s future, opposition groups, democracy and elections,” he said.

Rouhani stressed that Iran was ready to “sit down at any negotiating table anywhere in the world” to help stop the violence and establish peace in Syria.  

More than 240,000 people have been killed in the conflict, which began with anti-government protests in March 2011 but spiraled into a complex civil war after a brutal government crackdown.

Since 2013, Sunni jihadists including Al Qaeda affiliate Al-Nusra Front and the Islamic State group (ISIS) have seized large swathes of land in Syria as well as in Iraq, Iran’s other Shiite ally.

AFP contributed to this report.