De Mistura: Iran to be invited to Third Geneva Convention

According to the results of a closed meeting of the UN Security Council, the Special Envoy of the UN Secretary General, Staffan de Mistura, is going to invite Iran to hold consultations on Syria in Geneva, beginning in early May.

"Iran is a member state of the UN, an important player in the region. It has an impact on the situation in Syria. The UN and myself have every right to invite everyone, including Iran," he said. At the same time, the special envoy stressed that this does not apply to extremist groups such as Islamic State. "No. They're not invited. They are included in the list of terrorist organizations" , TASS quotes him as saying.

De Mistura confirmed earlier information that consultations on Syria will begin in early May and will continue until approximately the end of June. "We'll start at the beginning of May. And we will meet with everyone individually. No one will be excluded [from the negotiations], the Italian diplomat said. "By the end of June, I hope that we will have an understanding of whether there is some interaction on major issues, and I hope to report on them to the Secretary General."

He warned against the use of the definition of the Third Geneva Convention with respect to the consultations starting in May. "This is not the Third Geneva Convention. This is a series of bilateral consultations between me, my team and the delegation of each country and the Syrian side," the emissary said.