UNITED NATIONS/ ANKARA (Reuters) – UN chief Ban Ki-moon withdrew a last-minute invitation to Iran to attend peace talks on Syria yesterday after the Syrian opposition threatened to boycott this week’s conference if President Bashar al-Assad’s main sponsor took part.
Ending nearly 24 hours of confusion that dismayed diplomats who have spent months cajoling Assad’s opponents to negotiate, Ban’s spokesman said Iran was no longer welcome at the initial day of talks at Montreux, Switzerland tomorrow. The opposition immediately withdrew its threat to stay away from the conference known as Geneva-2. But the uproar over Iran, which has provided Assad with money, arms and men, underlined the difficulties of negotiating an end to a bloody, three-year civil war that has divided the Middle East and world powers.
Ban, his spokesman said, made the invitation to Iran after Iranian officials assured him they supported the conclusion of a UN conference in 2012, known as Geneva-1, which called for a transitional administration to take over power in Syria – something neither Assad nor Tehran have been willing to embrace.
Throughout yesterday Iranian officials made clear that they were not endorsing that conclusion as a basis for the talks. “The secretary-general is deeply disappointed by Iranian public statements today that are not at all consistent with that stated commitment,” Ban’s spokesman Martin Nesirky told reporters at a briefing.
“He continues to urge Iran to join the global consensus behind the Geneva Communique. Given that it has chosen to remain outside that basic understanding, he has decided that the one-day Montreux gathering will proceed without Iran’s participation.”
While rebels and their Western and Arab allies see the 2012 accord as obliging Assad to step down, the Syrian leader has support from Iran in rejecting that view. Russia, too, though a participant in the 2012 accord and co-sponsor of this week’s first direct peace negotiations, says outsiders should not force Assad out. Moscow has said Iran should be at the talks.