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UN calls for Iran cooperation to settle unrest in ME

Politics Materials 12 October 2015 18:06 (UTC +04:00)
The United Nations has once more highlighted the need for Iran ’s cooperation in settling conflicts in the restive Middle East.
UN calls for Iran cooperation to settle unrest in ME

Tehran, Iran, Oct. 12

By Mehdi Sepahvand -- Trend:

The United Nations has once more highlighted the need for Iran 's cooperation in settling conflicts in the restive Middle East.

The UN has this year dispatched its second highest-ranking official to Iran to mark the international body's 70th anniversary and seven decades of UN cooperation with Iran as a founding member.

This comes a few months after Iran managed to reach a nuclear deal with world powers, creating hope that the powers and Iran would be able to cooperate on regional issues as well.

On Oct. 12, UN Deputy Secretary General Jan Eliasson appeared in a press conference in Tehran on the sidelines of the anniversary ceremony. Trend news agency found the chance to pose a question to Mr. Eliasson regarding the role of the post-nuclear deal on Iran in the UN's agenda for bringing peace to the Middle East.

"I think the nuclear agreement is a signal that much can be achieved by patience and skillful diplomacy," Eliasson said, Trend's correspondent reported.

"This region is in turmoil and many of the conflicts are inter-related. We have seen many attempts to seek a military solution," he said, but noted, "I think very little can be achieved without a political strategy."

Mr. Eliasson went on to highlight Iran as an important actor both in itself and because geographically it is placed in the center of the conflicts around the area.

"We need Iran 's cooperation," he stressed, noting the importance of diplomatic efforts to settle regional crises.

He then pointed to the Syrian conflict as the most important example of Middle East issues that needs to be settled.

"We have a basis in the Geneva agreement, but there is also the Iranian four-point plan proposal. We now should focus on diplomacy," he stated.

Iran has often stressed that it backs the Syrian President Bashar Assad against opposing groups, many of which are internationally seen as terrorist groups, the most notable of which being the "Islamic State" (IS, aka ISIL, ISIS or Daesh).

Iran says it is providing military consultation to Syria. Recently Russia started attacking the IS positions with airstrikes. But Russia's military move seems not welcome by the United States.

Russian President Vladimir Putin's military campaign in Syria is an act of weakness and Moscow is spending resources "it doesn't have" to keep his Syrian ally in power, says US President Barack Obama.

"The fact that they [Russians] had to do this is not an indication of strength, it's an indication that their strategy did not work," Obama told CBS's 60 Minutes, on Oct. 11.

However, commenting on his own strategies in Syria , namely the $500 million "train-and-equip" program aimed to produce the so-called "moderate" militants, Obama admitted that Washington had failed to create a proxy force in the Arab country.

Earlier on Friday, US Defense Secretary Ashton Carter also admitted that he "wasn't happy with the early efforts" of the program, "so we have devised a number of different approaches".

Initially, the program was supposed to train more than 5,000 militants each year, but it fell flat by producing only "four or five" militants according to US military officials.

However, Obama said he was planning to push ahead with a double plan for Syria, where he would set out "to support moderate opposition" while convincing Iran and Russia "to put pressure on Assad for a transition".

Edited by CN

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