U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry salutes as he arrives at Vienna’s Schwechat airport, Austria, Thursday, October 29, 2015.
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The Syrian opposition has objected to Iran’s participation in the talks – the first time it has attended such a meeting on Syria – because of its military support for President Bashar al-Assad.
Meanwhile, Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said that other powers had realised that there was no way reaching “a reasonable solution” to the Syrian conflict without involving Tehran.
Syria has been in a state of civil war since 2011, with troops loyal to President Bashar Assad fighting on multiple fronts against opposition factions and extremist groups. Sunni-dominated Saudi Arabia has been more outspoken than the U.S.in labeling the talks as a test of Shiite Iran’s seriousness to seek peace.
But potentially signalling a willingness to compromise, Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister Amir Abdollahian was quoted by Iranian media as saying: “Iran does not insist on keeping Assad in power forever”.
Foreign ministers from at least a dozen nations plan to gather in Vienna on Friday as part of a reinvigorated diplomatic push to end the Syrian civil war, now in its fifth year.
Syria alleges Saudi Arabia has no business at the talks in Vienna due to problems it now faces within its own country.
During a war that has killed more than 250,000 people and driven 10 million from their homes, Assad’s main ally, Tehran, has been locked out of a succession of global peace conferences, all of which ended in failure.
Kerry – who said that finding a solution in Syria is like charting a “course out of hell” but also that Friday’s negotiations present “the most promising opportunity for a political opening” – will meet Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov later Thursday.
On one side, Russian Federation and Iran are backing Mr Al Assad’s forces on the ground and say Damascus must be helped to defeat terrorism before a political process can take shape.
While Saudi Arabia maintained its position that there is no role for Al-Assad in a future, post-conflict Syria, the Egyptians appear to have adopted Russia’s approach. “Assad… has the necessary readiness for talks with insurgents who are committed to a political path”.
U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry says the upcoming multilateral talks on Syria will not find an immediate political solution but represent the best hope available.
“He will go either through a political process or he will be removed by force”, Saudi foreign minister Adel al-Jubeir said of the Syrian leader.
On Thursday, Doctors Without Borders said there’s been an escalation in deaths from airstrike attacks on hospitals in Syria in the past month, which is roughly the same period Russian Federation started its air campaign.
The announcement came just days after the United States said it had agreed to invite Iran to the summit. “My strong impression is that the USA government is still very uncertain and internally divided about what to do in Syria”, said David Pollock, a senior fellow at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy.
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The Russian air strikes, an increase in the humanitarian crisis as more hospitals are hit, and recent gains by Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant – considered an enemy by all parties to the talks – has added urgency to the meeting.
