Will Iranians go to Switzerland?

By Vestnik Kavkaza

Yesterday Vladimir Putin called his Iranian colleague Hassan Rouhani on the phone to discuss the situation in Syria in the context of the upcoming international conference Geneva-2 which should begin in Switzerland on January 22nd. The result of the talk is unknown, as well as the question of Tehran’s participation in the conference is still dim. On Monday it will be discussed by the Foreign Minister of Russia Sergey Lavrov and the Secretary of State of the USA John Kerry.

The idea of Iranian participation in the negotiations on Syria becomes more and more popular. The Foreign Minister of Germany Frank Walter Steinmeier who is to take part in the meeting of the Group of Friends of Syria in Paris has already stated that Tehran should be involved into Geneva-2 and it’s a pity that many countries, including the USA, hesitate in the question.

At the same time, along with official Damascus, Moscow is interested in involvement of Iran. “There can be different attitudes towards Iran, but Iran is the most important state in the region. A settlement without Iran is more problematic than a settlement with Iran,” Alexei Pushkov, the chairman of the State Duma Committee on Foreign Affairs, states. “The French government, for example, also thinks so - I am recalling my recent visits - the Austrian leadership thinks so too. In general, the European Union believes that Iran has to participate in this conference. The U.S. has the biggest concerns, the position of the Saudis and the group headed by Saudi Arabia is sharply negative. Israel also has a negative position, but Israel is not a key country in determining the fate of Geneva, the Geneva-2 talks.”

According to Pushkov, Iran should be involved in this issue, especially because very important, perhaps crucial agreements regarding the fate of the Iranian nuclear program have been achieved: “Given the marginalizing of Iran, portraying it as some particularly negative factor in this region, there are many factors that play a very negative role, and distinguishing Iran as someone guiltier than other countries that play a much more negative role than Iran would be completely wrong in my opinion. It seems to me that Geneva-2 will be incomplete without Iran. There is very little resistance left, primarily it remains on the part of Saudi Arabia. I think that even the US, after thinking about it properly, will have to realize that Iran has to take part.”