Iran hosts Syria talks, calls for national dialogue

Iran on Thursday hosted a 29-nation conference on Syria with the aim of stopping bloodshed there and forging a role for Tehran as peace-broker for its beleaguered Arab ally. Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi opened the meeting by calling for "national dialogue between the (Syrian) opposition, which has popular support, and the Syrian government to establish calm and security," according to state television. He added that Iran was prepared to host any such dialogue. Salehi said Iran was opposed to "any foreign interference and military intervention in resolving the Syrian crisis" and supported efforts extended by UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon. He said Iran had sent humanitarian aid to Syria to make up for international sanctions on Damascus that he said "are not in the interest of the Syrian people but have added to their suffering." Excluded from the Tehran meeting were Western and Gulf Arab nations that Iran has accused of giving military backing to the bloody near 17-month insurgency seeking to oust Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. State media said the foreign ministers of Iraq, Pakistan and Zimbabwe were present. Lower-ranking diplomats, most of them ambassadors, represented the other nations. Salehi listed those nations as: Afghanistan, Algeria, Armenia, Benin, Belarus, China, Cuba, Ecuador, Georgia, India, Indonesia, Jordan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Maldives, Mauritania, Nicaragua, Oman, Russia, Sri Lanka, Sudan, Tajikistan, Tunisia, Turkmenistan and Venezuela. A representative of the United Nations was also present. Kuwait and Lebanon had said before the meeting they would not send representatives. Iran is endeavouring to establish a ceasefire in Syria and start national dialogue between the Syrian opposition and government. But Tehran is at the same time pledging to stick by Assad, whose forces are battling rebels in war for Syria that has so far cost more than 21,000 lives, activists estimate. A top aide to supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Saeed Jalili, met Assad in Damascus on Tuesday to vow Tehran would not permit the bond between it and Assad's regime to be broken. There was no immediate word from the Syrian opposition and rebels on how they viewed the Tehran conference. Iran's hasty organisation of the meeting appeared to be an attempt to step into a diplomacy vacuum caused by the August 2 resignation of Kofi Annan as UN-Arab League peace envoy on the Syria crisis. The frustrated former UN chief had said that "continuous finger-pointing and name-calling" within the UN Security Council had undermined his mission. He also said he believed Assad would go "sooner or later." Iran, which blamed Annan's departure on US support for Syria's rebels, said it was trying to revive parts of Annan's six-point peace plan. Tehran's position hews closely to that of Moscow, which along with China has blocked three Security Council attempts to sanction Assad's regime. Russia and Iran believe Western criticism of Assad's heavy-handed crackdown glosses over the role of Syria's rebels in the conflict. Iran also backs Syria's portrayals of the rebels as foreign-backed "terrorists" armed by Sunni rivals Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Turkey.