Tehran, Iran, September 26
By Mehdi Sepahvand -- Trend:
The United States is the one side which has created the Syrian conflict and Iran does not consider holding talks with the US administration over the crisis, a senior Iranian MP has aid.
Iran believes that the US is the one that started the crisis by creating and then backing terrorist groups such as the ISIL and other Takfiri groups, and therefore Washington is not fit to be a focal point in the Syria talks, Esmail Kosari, member of the National Security and Foreign Policy Commission of the Iranian Parliament, told Trend September 26.
His remarks came in response to a new US initiative that has invited Iran and a number of other countries to the Syria talks.
U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry will try to launch a new initiative for a political solution in Syria during meetings in New York in the next week, starting with talks with his Iranian counterpart on Saturday, U.S. and other Western officials said.
The new approach - which officials stressed was in its infancy - could bring together Russia, a major ally of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, Saudi Arabia and countries such as Turkey and Qatar, which support Syrian opposition groups.
It would be irrelevant for the US to place itself at the center of the talks while it is committing crimes in Syria, Yemen, and other places, Kosari stressed.
It is also irrelevant that European countries _ which have rejected the war refugees _ say they would accept Iran as part of the talks, he said, adding that on the contrary, it is Tehran which would not consider these countries as suitable sides to the Syria talks.
The MP marked the new US move as a retreat, noting that while previously Washington would stress that even current Syrian President Bashar al-Assad would have no place in the talks, now it says Assad should be part of a solution to the Syrian crisis.
Iran, which has said it is willing to sit down with rivals to discuss the crisis in Syria, is a staunch ally of Assad that backs the activities in Syria of Lebanese militant group Hizbollah, which has given Assad vital support. U.S. officials acknowledge that to reach a political breakthrough in Syria, Iran will eventually have to play a role.
Under Secretary of State Wendy Sherman said September 25 that such a discussion would be on the agenda for Secretary of State John Kerry's meeting with Iranian Foreign Minister Mahammad Javad Zarif at the United Nations on September 26.
Sherman said such talks "make sense" in the context of current developments in the Syrian conflict.