Iran to continue supporting Syria

By Vestnik Kavkaza

UN Secretary General Ban ki-Moon has declared that the conference of Syria Geneva-2 is scheduled for January 22. This day the Syrian government and the opposition will talk for the first time from the beginning of the conflict. According to Ban ki-Moon, the aim of the conference is the implementation of Geneva final protocol on June 30th, 2012, according to which “a transactional body possessing executive power, including the control of the army and the police” should be composed with mutual consent of the parties. The Secretary General hopes that all representatives of Syria will come to Geneva “with clear realization of goals of the conference and serious intentions to stop the war.”

Meanwhile, the official representative of the UN Secretary General, Martin Nesirki, emphasizes that agreements on the Iranian nuclear problem achieved in Geneva are not connected with the Syrian settlement; last weekend was simply successful for international diplomacy. “Both talks take place in Geneva, but their directions are very different. They have different formats,” Neskiri said.

However, it is difficult to say that problems of the normalization of the situation over Syria and over Iran are not corresponding, especially in the context of Moscow’s attempts to involve Tehran in Geneva-2. “The list of participants is not final; one of unsettled questions is participation of Iran. We still believe that its participation in the conference will be effective because Iran is a major regional power which is involved into processes happening over Syria,” the Russian Foreign Ministry thinks.

“Iran welcomes any other regional dialogues on the topic along with Geneva-2, which would encourage a political settlement of the problem,” Hosein Amir Abdullahian, the deputy foreign minister of Iran, says. “No country in the world has a right to make the decision for people of Syria. A dialogue between representatives of the Syrian authorities and other Syrian parties will determine the future of Syria.”

According to Abdullahian, “Iran has sent humanitarian aid, including medicines and food (the general sum is 1 billion euros) to Syria in the last 30 months. I should say that the aid was distributed by the Red Crescent in Syria and those agents who received the aid and spread it among villages and districts. Tehran and Moscow take similar positions on a political settlement of the Syrian crisis. We will continue our firm support. And we hope that, on the path of a political and democratic settlement of the Syrian problem, elections in Syria will be conducted in due time, the necessary political reforms will be carried out and the Syrian people will determine their future. Our support for Syria will continue.”