UN revokes Iran invite to Syria peace talks
“He [Ban] continues to urge Iran to join the global consensus behind the Geneva communiqué,” Ban’s spokesman Martin Nesirky said. “Given that it has chosen to remain outside that basic understanding, [Ban] has decided that the one-day Montreux gathering will proceed without Iran’s participation.”
Ban said earlier that Iran’s public statement that it did not support the 2012 Geneva deal calling for a transitional government for Syria was “not consistent” with assurances he had been given by Iran’s foreign minister, Mohammad Javad Zarif.
The US had insisted that the UN invitation to Iran to attend the conference be withdrawn, unless Tehran fully supported the 2012 plan to establish a transitional government in Syria.
The Geneva 1 plan agreed to establish “by mutual consent” a transitional body to govern Syria.
Syrian opposition groups, which voted on Saturday to attend the conference, had threatened to withdraw from the talks unless the invitation to Iran was withdrawn.
A US state government official earlier yesterday had said that Iran was providing substantial military and economic support for president Bashar al-Assad and Tehran’s participation in peace talks was not helpful.
“They are doing nothing to de-escalate tensions... and their actions have actually aggravated them, and so the idea that they would come to the conference refusing to acknowledge support for Geneva 1, we do not see how it could be helpful,” the official had said.
US secretary of state John Kerry had been in talks with Ban over the Iran standoff, just 48 hours before the planned talks between the Syrian government and rebel groups.
“Iran has not publicly endorsed Geneva, not before last night and not overnight.
“We expect the invitation will be rescinded,” said an administration official before the offer to Iran was officially withdrawn.
“[Iran] has not met the conditions that the United States has set out,” the state department official had said, adding, “They do not meet the bar.”
Iran had rebuffed a pre-condition for taking part in the peace talks this week, saying it could not accept a plan for a Syrian political transition agreed in 2012, according to the ISNA news agency.
The administration official said statements by Iran since the invitation was issued on Sunday had fallen “short of what the UN was told privately” by Iranian officials.
Ban said on Sunday Iran had privately assured him they would play a “positive and constructive role” in the peace talks.
Over 30 countries have been invited to attend the talks, which are unlikely to lead to an immediate political settlement.
Kerry has said the talks should be seen to be the start of a process and emphasised that there is no place for Assad in Syria’s future.
With stakes high and expectations low, Syria’s government and its opponents will sit down face-to-face for the first time — muscled to the negotiating table by foreign powers that fear the bloodiest of the Arab Spring uprisings may engulf the entire region in sectarian war
The opening of the conference in Switzerland reflects the unanimity in the international community about the urgent need to bring a halt to a conflict that has killed more than 130,000 people, touched off the worst humanitarian crisis in decades, and unleashed sectarian hatreds that have sent tremors across the Middle East.
— Reuters
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