Iran says it will attend worldwide talks over Syria’s future in Vienna this week.
Advertisement
“At the end of the day, nothing would do more to bolster the fight against Daesh than a political transition that sidelines Assad so that we can unite more of the country against extremism”, Kerry said, referring to Islamic State.
French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius was set to speak with his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov on the phone later Wednesday ahead of worldwide talks on the Syrian crisis, a government spokesman said.
But participating in the multination Syria talks does not contradict Khamenei’s dictums, a few Iranian analysts say.
On Wednesday, The Wall Street Journal reported the U.S. government was considering deploying a small number of ground forces in Syria embedded among Kurdish Peshmerga troops or the moderate Syrian opposition fighters.
Those countries, with the exception of Iran, attended a first round of talks in Vienna last week. If talks fail, “we will resort to other options”, he said, without elaborating. “What has changed is that Russian Federation and the United States have come to the same conclusion”, said Ali Sadrzadeh, an Iranian political analyst in Frankfurt.
The Arabs, on the other hand, have backed the largely Sunni opposition against Assad in an attempt to hasten his demise – which they would consider a victory in their struggle for regional hegemony with Shia Iran.
He noted that Iran is a highly influential force on ground in the Syrian conflict and has naturally to be part of the talks.
Russia’s intervention – and its insistence that it seeks a political solution – have created a new dynamic.
He said the Iranian officers were providing tactical help for Syrian commanders of battalions in direct battles, as well as weapons and ordnance, operational assistance and help with strategic planning.
On the other, the United States and its key regional allies Turkey and Saudi Arabia are supporting groups fighting Assad and insist he must go.
Washington actively opposed Iran participating in two earlier, months-long mediation attempts but recently spoke of the possibility of Iran joining talks in the future.
“This is an acknowledgement of reality, four years into the conflict”, said Julien Barnes-Dacey, senior policy fellow at the European Council on Foreign Relations in London.
US Deputy Secretary of State Antony Blinken has cautiously welcomed Iran’s participation. “Having Iran at the table complicates the goal of getting rid of Assad, but potentially opens the door to a few kind of de-escalatory track”.
Advertisement
Since the start of the crisis, Iran has supported a “political process” in Syria in which elections should determine the fate of the regime.
