UN Syria envoy says Iran should attend Syria peace conference
UN peace envoy to Syria Lakhdar Brahimi has said that Iran should attend a proposed peace conference on Syria which is aimed at ending the fighting, according to AFP.
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TEHRAN (Asremrooz):“It is extremely difficult to bring people who have been killing one another for two years just by a magic wand to a conference like this. It will take time, but I hope it will happen,” Brahimi told reporters on the sidelines of an event in Washington on Monday.
“There are still issues that have not been solved. We are hopeful. That’s all we can say.”
The talks, dubbed Geneva 2, were initially planned for late May after the idea was first floated during a Moscow meeting between U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry and his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov.
But amid difficulties on agreeing who should sit at the table, the calendar slipped into June, and then July, with the best estimates now hoping for a date in September.
There is also disagreement between the United States and Russia about whether Iran should attend the talks, which are aimed at bringing together the opposition and the Syrian government to find a political solution to end a conflict that is now in its third year.
“The United Nations have made it very clear that we would like all countries… with interests and/or influence (to) attend Geneva, and that includes Iran,” Brahimi told the reporters.
And amid debate in Washington about arming the Syrian opposition, Brahimi said the UN stand was also very clear. “Arms do not make peace. We would like to see the delivery of arms stopped to all sides.” Another major problem is divisions between the Syrian opposition that is fighting to topple Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, Brahimi earlier told an audience gathered at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.
“There are still issues that have not been solved. We are hopeful. That’s all we can say.”
The talks, dubbed Geneva 2, were initially planned for late May after the idea was first floated during a Moscow meeting between U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry and his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov.
But amid difficulties on agreeing who should sit at the table, the calendar slipped into June, and then July, with the best estimates now hoping for a date in September.
There is also disagreement between the United States and Russia about whether Iran should attend the talks, which are aimed at bringing together the opposition and the Syrian government to find a political solution to end a conflict that is now in its third year.
“The United Nations have made it very clear that we would like all countries… with interests and/or influence (to) attend Geneva, and that includes Iran,” Brahimi told the reporters.
And amid debate in Washington about arming the Syrian opposition, Brahimi said the UN stand was also very clear. “Arms do not make peace. We would like to see the delivery of arms stopped to all sides.” Another major problem is divisions between the Syrian opposition that is fighting to topple Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, Brahimi earlier told an audience gathered at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.
Source : خبرگزاری Mehr News
Code : 59664
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