UN envoy asks Iran to continue efforts to help settle Syrian crisis

The United Nations Special Coordinator for Lebanon, Derek Plumbly, in a meeting with Iranian Ambassador to Beirut Qazanfar Roknabadi called on Tehran to continue its strenuous efforts to help soothe the crisis in Syria. During the meeting in Beirut on Tuesday, Plumbly underlined Iran's important role in regional and international developments, and expressed the hope that the main actors in the region would increase their cooperation and convergence on the regional problems, specially Syria. In the same line, he called for Iran's continued active partnership in the collective efforts made by the international community to resolve the problems in Syria, and hoped for the success of the Geneva II Conference due to be held in the near future, alluding that the gathering could gain success if all major actors in the region, including Iran, are involved. Roknabadi, for his part, called for the immediate halt to the financial and arms supports extended to the rebels in Syria as a prerequisite for a political settlement of the crisis in the Arab country, and stressed the Islamic Republic of Iran's pragmatic efforts in this regard. Iran announced on Tuesday that it is likely to take part in the Geneva II Conference on Syria if the co-hosts, the US and Russia, invite it to the international gathering. "If the Geneva II Conference is held and if Iran is invited, we will study our presence with a positive view," Foreign Ministry Spokesman Seyed Abbas Araqchi told reporters in his weekly press conference in Tehran today. Stressing that the Islamic Republic of Iran has had a constructive and positive partnership in all initiatives related to the regional issues, including Iraq and Afghanistan, he said, "This partnership has yielded good results." Araqchi underlined that Iran expects the Geneva II conference to find a solution acceptable to the Syrian people, and said, "Comprehensiveness is a necessity for the success of this conference, meaning that all the people who are influential in Syria and can help to the settlement of this crisis should take part in that meeting in a bid to guarantee its success." Russia's Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov revealed on Sunday that he had discussed Iran's involvement in a conference to resolve the crisis in Syria, when he met his US counterpart John Kerry early in May, stressing that the conference cannot succeed without Iran's participation. The Russians and Americans agreed during Kerry's visit to Moscow to set up a conference of international players to end the crisis in Syria. Moscow wants to involve all the nations which took part in the Geneva conference on Syria, and says without Iran's participation the conference cannot succeed.