The United States has taken strong exception to UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon’s invitation Iran for the peace conference on Syria to be held in Geneva this week.
Stating that Iran has never accepted the earlier Geneva conference’s mandate to establish a transitional governing body in Syria, the State Department said: “This is something Iran has never done publicly and something we have long made clear is required.”
It went on to say that “if Iran does not fully and publicly accept the Geneva communique, the invitation must be rescinded”, adding: “We also remain deeply concerned about Iran’s contributions to the Assad regime’s brutal campaign against its own people, which has contributed to the growth of extremism and instability in the region.”
The UN chief, however, justified his decision, announced at an unscheduled news conference on Sunday night.
“As I have said repeatedly, I believe strongly that Iran needs to be part of the solution to the Syrian crisis,” Ban said, adding he has spoken at length with Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif in recent days.
“He has assured me that, like all the other countries invited to the opening day discussions in Montreux, Iran understands that the basis of the talks is the full implementation of the 30 June 2012 Geneva Communique, including the Action Plan,” Ban said.
“Foreign Minister Zarif and I agree that the goal of the negotiations is to establish, by mutual consent, a transitional governing body with full executive powers. It was on that basis that Foreign Minister Zarif pledged that Iran would play a positive and constructive role in Montreux,” Ban said.
During a conference call with reporters on Monday, US officials said the UN had been told of the American position both privately and publicly, with Secretary of State John Kerry having spoken several times with the UN chief over the weekend. They said that they expect the United Nations to reevaluate and reverse its decision unless Iran changed course.
Syria’s main opposition group, the Syrian National Coalition, also warned that it would stay away if the UN did not rescind its invitation to Iran or Tehran agreed to certain conditions. It said must commit to the Geneva-I communique and must pull its troops from Syria.
“This is a deal breaker for the National Coalition. If they insist to bring Iran, we will have to go back to the drawing board again,” coalition spokesman louay Safi told CNN by phone from Turkey, adding: “We don’t want to negotiate with Iran; we want to negotiate with the regime. Before we go (to the conference), Iran has to say they will pull out all the fighters (inside Syria) allied with it.”