Iran’s presence crucial for Geneva II success

Iran’s long-standing relationship with Syrian government and its deftness to cooperate with other countries is crucial for success to Geneva II and bringing peace to the Syrian people, Hillary Flynt Leverett, senior fellow at the New America Foundation said. She told RT that the US has the record of cooperating with Iran and Russia to deal with the problem of Taliban and Al-Qaeda, and now “it doesn’t make sense that the US doesn’t want to solicit Iran’s participation and work with Iran on this issue, except that America's so-called allies, particularly in Saudi Arabia and others in the (Persian) Gulf, don’t really want to see Iran’s participation there because they don’t want Assad to be able to consolidate his authority in his country”. Asked why the presence of Iran is so crucial for the success of Geneva talks, he replied, as Iranian government has long-established good relations with other regional countries like Turkey, Iraq and especially Syria, can bring the talks to a discernable conclusion. “Right now the Iranian foreign minister is doing a regional tour, visiting all of the countries surrounding Syria – Turkey, Lebanon, Iraq, Jordan. The Iranian foreign minister is very, very active and focused on using international law and conflict resolution to actually come to a political solution to a range of issues, especially on Syria. That’s incredibly important because there is no military solution to the problem in Syria. You cannot kill the Assad’s government; you cannot kill the others who support it. There is no military solution.” She added that if we really want to find a political settlement, if we really want to stop blood shedding in Syria and end the humanitarian crisis, then we need political solution and that means we need Iran. UN Chief, Ban Ki-moon, sent a letter to Iran on Monday to invite the country to the Geneva II peace conference on Syria. Yet, a few hours later, the US State Department Spokeswoman, Jen Psaki, stated that “if Iran does not fully and publicly accept the Geneva I communiqué, the invitation must be rescinded”. In response to Psaki's statements, the Iranian foreign ministry spokeswoman reiterated that Tehran would never accept any precondition for its participation in the gathering. “We will not accept any preconditions for our presence in the Geneva II and we will take part in the conference as per the invitation (extended to Iran) and without any precondition,” Afkham stressed. She underscored that Iran has always supported political solution to the Syrian crisis, and said, “In our opinion, the Geneva II conference can provide proper conditions for taking effective steps in this framework.” Then a few hours later, the UN chief took back his invitation to Iran. The Geneva II conference, which will be a follow-up to an earlier one held in June 2012, had been proposed by Moscow and Washington to find a political solution to the crisis in Syria. The conference is scheduled to be held in Switzerland in two parts. On January 22, the opening session of the event will be in the Swiss city of Montreux and then it will be moved to the UN office in Geneva on January 24.