Russian Federation and Iran are supporting Assad’s forces.
Advertisement
Both Iran and Syrian government are excluded from the worldwide anti-IS efforts in Syria.
Iran’s Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif is leading a delegation to a Friday meeting on Syria in the Austrian capital, a first such presence since the conflict began in Syria in March 2011.
A senior Russian diplomat says he has met with a few representatives of the Free Syrian Army among other Syrian opposition groups. While Saudi Foreign Minister Adel al-Jubeir explicitly stated October 28 said that they are hoping for there to be a “certainty that [President] Bashar al-Assad will leave”, comments by Iranian officials did not give any such guarantees. He wouldn’t name any names. But they have also said that without Assad, Syria will collapse into unacceptable chaos.
Responding to a question about the possibility of Iran’s cooperation with the US-led anti-IS (Islamic State) coalition, Shamkhani said that Tehran would not take part in “fake” anti-terror alignments.
On Thursday, Egyptian media announced that Cairo was working with Moscow to bring together an opposition group that would eventually enter into dialogue with Al-Assad. Meanwhile, violence continues to rage between rebel groups and the Islamic State, and in the Kurdish region in northern Syria, even drawing in Turkey.
With so many nations involved in the Syrian Civil War, many have been left wondering who is fighting who in Syria. The attacks have caused five hospitals to shut down. “Americans and foreign players in Syria have no choice but to accept the realities in Syria”.
“While finding a way forward on Syria will not be easy – it’s not going to be automatic – it is the most promising opportunity for a political opening we have seen”, he said in a speech on Middle East policy just before he was to set off for Vienna. “Everything will depend on whether it is possible to move beyond certain ambitions, personal preferences and dislikes, to ensure the representative nature of the talks with Iran, Egypt and Syria’s Arab neighbors”, Interfax news agency quoted Lavrov as saying at a press conference.
“The challenge that we face in Syria today is nothing less than to chart a course out of hell”, Kerry said in a speech at the Carnegie Endowment for worldwide Peace think tank.
The summit also mark the first time rivals Saudi Arabia and Iran meet to discuss Syria. That includes what “transition” would mean for him, what powers he could maintain as part of that transition, how long the process should take and whether he can compete in a future presidential election, something his global backers refuse to rule out.
Tehran’s support has been crucial to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s survival. In a statement, Syrian National Coalition member Bassam Abdullah dismissed political initiatives like this one in Vienna as attempts to buy time for the military to regain territories from rebels.
The remarks came one day ahead of talks planned to be held in Vienna.
Serious divisions remain over when or whether Assad should step down – and four-way Russia-US-Saudi-Turkey talks in Vienna last Friday failed to make a breakthrough.
Advertisement
US officials have said that progress in Vienna is likely to be elusive. That unleashed bitter recriminations from Syrian Information Minister Omran al-Zoubi, who called al-Jubeir a “tumor”.
