On the eve of his departure to Vienna, Austria, for talks on the future of Syria, Secretary of State John Kerry Wednesday evoked a damning image to describe issues facing the team of negotiators from across the Middle East and Europe.
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The inclusion of Iran – a key backer of Assad – marks a crucial shift after Tehran was excluded from earlier talks, mainly because of opposition from Washington and Riyadh.
U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry has arrived in Vienna for two days of worldwide talks on Syria’s civil war – a gathering on the conflict that will include Iran for the first time.
While stressing that it is not seeking to keep Mr Assad in power forever, Iran meanwhile believes he needs to continue as president to fight the jihadist group Islamic State (IS) and maintain national unity.
In a statement on Wednesday, the SNC said that Iran’s involvement in talks would undermine peace efforts and called on Tehran to withdraw its troops fighting alongside government forces.
“Whether the meeting in Vienna on Friday and subsequent talks will help resolve the fundamental differences about Assad”s future remains to be seen.
Backed by Russian airstrikes, Syrian and Iranian forces have renewed their ground offensive in recent weeks, especially around the key cities of Aleppo and Hama.
This is the first time Iran is attending talks about the crisis in Syria with the United States.
Now in its fifth year, Syria’s armed conflict has killed over 250,000 people and displaced 7.5 million internally and over 4 million externally.
Egypt, Iraq, Qatar, Lebanon, the European Union and France also said they would attend Friday’s talks, which come a day after a smaller round of negotiations between the United States, Russia, Saudi Arabia and Turkey.
The US and regional Arab allies led by Saudi Arabia have demanded Mr. Assad must step down as part of any final deal, given the huge losses the country has suffered during the civil war, a pre-condition Russian Federation and Iran have rejected. The incumbent president of Syria Bashar al-Assad thus can not be the participant of this process. “Assad… has the necessary readiness for talks with insurgents who are committed to a political path”. Kerry said the coalition will be resupplying moderate fighters in Northern Syria, enhancing its air campaign and beginning to put pressure on Islamic State’s chief city of Raqqa.
“Iran is part of the problem and not the solution, and its participation in the meeting will prove that to the world”, Zoubi said. The addition of Iran as a new participant, however, means there will be a lot more eyes on this round of discussions than during most. The decision came after Zarif discussed the Syrian crisis with his Russian counterpart, Sergey Lavrov, twice since late Tuesday, the report said.
“This is an acknowledgement of reality, four years into the conflict”, said Julien Barnes-Dacey, a senior policy fellow at the European Council on Foreign Relations told Reuters.
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The United States – with assistance from its regional allies especially Turkey, Jordan and Saudi Arabia – has been arming and training allied militant units to combat the Syrian government.
