Hossein Amir-Abdollahian who was speaking to ‘From Tehran,’ a news program aired on Al-Alam TV Network on Monday, said that setting aside all differences, an overall evaluation was positive in Vienna session on Syria; “a very long and challenging session indeed, Vienna edition of talks concluded with an inconclusive statement by all participants, which said different participants differed in their position on Syrian issues, especially on the future Assad role,” he told Al-Alam program. “All members agreed to arrive at a series of principles as common grounds to work upon; in the future talks, we hope to see some progress with UN participation,” he added.
Amir-Abdollahian, however, said that Iran’s future participation depended on the success of the talks; “we would participate in an event which seeks to really help situation in Syria; in the first session, Saudi Arabia along with some other countries had unconstructive role; they trespassed in territories purely the domain of Syrian public; we would not support the idea that others set the future of Syrian politics,” he told the program.
“We emphasized upon the framework where countries with effective role in fighting terrorism take a facilitating role in political process, through which representatives of government and warring factions believing in a political approach would sit in a dialogue; we also highlighted a condition under which Syrian people could participate in their country’s political future,” he detailed. “The Islamic Republic of Iran will support a path leading to dialogue and which improves political conditions and fighting terrorism; if talks turn to a path where the rights of Syrian people are ignored, neither we nor some countries with a rationality will welcome talks,” Amir-Abdollahian told Al-Alam program.
On the question of Iran’s redlines in Syria, deputy-FM said that Bashar al-Assad was a redline for the Islamic Republic; “for Iran, the future of Syria and Assad’s role in it as president is an express redline, which we insisted upon in Vienna round of talks; we worked to prevent approval of a timetable where there was a time when Assad should step down as president, despite attempts by some countries to push forward the agenda; we believe that Assad’s leaving Syrian political arena or his stay would only be a matter for Syrian people to decide, and neither Iran, Saudi Arabia, nor the US could act as surrogates of Syrian people,” he emphasized.
Amir-Abdollahian said that Iran had serious critiques about Geneva 1 and Resolution 2118 which provided a reference for the closing statement in Vienna round; “however, we deem the overall mentality of Geneva statement as appropriate, since it mandates dialogue between the government and opposition representatives for hitting an accord; in details, we have some reservations, though,” he told the program.
On the question of whether political action in Syria would actually translate into a political solution, Amir-Abdollahian said that it heavily depended on the resolution in part of countries supporting terrorists stopped provision of arms and finance to these warring factions; “in the systematic lack of a regional and international will to cut influx of support and arms to terrorists, and as long as ISIL finances its operations selling oil defying the global banking system in easily doing transactions, no settlement whatsoever or political will be possible to forge,” he concluded.
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