Speaking at an IRIB live program on Monday evening, Deputy-FM for Arab and African Affairs Ansari said the Syrian crisis has lingered for long as a result of being dragged into regional and international arenas by numerous actors; “certain parties take advantage of terrorism and human crisis to reach their own objectives.”
The official, while referring to his talks with Russian and Syrian officials, said negotiations emphasized the need for humanitarian aids as well as that Iran’s readiness was announced to provide aid to Aleppo residents.
Any resolution to Syrian crisis needs to take into account military, political and humanitarian issues simultaneously, said Jaberi Ansari adding “ignoring these issues led to the failure of ceasefire in Syria.”
He said multiple strategies adopted by certain actors, the US in particular, caused the defeat in ceasefire.
Jaberi Ansari pointed to the grave differences in approaches adopted by the two major rivals in Russia explaining “while Americans pay no attention to the issue of terrorism, Russians believe that terrorists are the main issue at stake and should be confronted as a top priority.”
“Sooner or later, the Syrian issue needs to be resolved through political rather than military solutions,” highlighted the official asserting “all agents need to stick to political dialogue and put an end to exploitation of terrorism.”
Deputy FM of Iran said the crisis in Syria will persist as long as present parties continue setting preconditions; “all sides need to reach the understanding that they will fail in imposing their views against Syrians.”
“The Islamic Republic of Iran believes that only those political groups can advocate peaceful settlement of the Syrian crisis who reject terrorism both in word and action,” Jaberi Ansari noted.
He went on to note that Iran has proposed several plans over the past five and a half years to put an end to the Syrian crisis; “despite the fact that Iran was not present in the recent ceasefire talks between the US and Russia, it has always announced its support for any initiative to solve the crisis peacefully and simultaneously help to deal with the issue of terrorism and solve the humanitarian crisis in the Arab country.”
The Iranian deputy foreign minister said Americans are exploiting political, racial and ethnic differences in Syria and they hold worries that breaking the siege in Mosul would lead to major developments.
Later in his remarks, Hossein Jaberi Ansari said the delay in prosecution of Bahraini Muslims’ leader Ayatollah Shaikh Isa Ahmed Qassim was an outcome of opinion surveys by authorities of Bahrain; “these policies are unproductive and would not lead to fundamental changes in the country’s conditions.”
He also noted that Saudi Arabia’s war in Yemen is akin to their support for terrorism in Iraq and Syria; “despite their short-term outcome, these policies are bound to fail at the end of the day.”
The official reiterated that no further development has emerged in the negotiations with Saudis concluding “indeed, unlike Iran, Saudi Arabia has always been after conflicts and intensification of differences.”
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