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Envoy: US would welcome Iran’s “positive” role in Syria crisis, but not current position

Iran Materials 17 July 2012 09:00 (UTC +04:00)
The United States would welcome Iran's involvement in the Syrian crisis if Iran changes its current position and be ready to take a "constructive" role
Envoy: US would welcome Iran’s “positive” role in Syria crisis, but not current position

Azerbaijan, Baku, July 16/ Trend, D.Khatinoglu/

The United States would welcome Iran's involvement in the Syrian crisis if Iran changes its current position and be ready to take a "constructive" role, Persian language spokesperson of the U.S State Department Alan Eyre told Trend on July 16.

Earlier, the UN especial envoy in the Syria crisis Kofi Annan said that Iran should become involved in Syrian talks. Before that, Russia had called the western country several times to allow Iran to take on a role in Syria crisis solution.

The U.S. rejects Iran's involvement in the Syrian crisis saying Iran is providing the Syrian government with military aids to kill the opposition.

Iranian Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi said on July 15 that Iran is ready to invite Syrian opposition groups, alongside a Syrian Government representative to host two-party Syrian peace negotiations, ISNA reported.

U.S Department State spokesperson Eyre said that Iran is helping the Bashar Assad regime to crack down on uprising protests in the country and everybody knows that Iran's current role in Syria case is not constructive.

"The U.S. welcomes Iran's involvement in this issue only if Iran abandons its biased position towards regional countries including the Syrian government that kills its people brutally," he said.

Earlier on Friday, Annan accused the Syrian government of violating his plan to end the bloodshed in the country by using heavy weaponry on civilian areas.

"This is in violation of the government's undertaking to cease the use of heavy weapons in populated centres and its commitment to the six-point plan ... I condemn these atrocities in the strongest possible terms," Annan said in Geneva.

Annan's plan accepted by Damascus earlier this year, calls for withdrawing military troops and hardware from urban areas and giving access to humanitarian services.

The Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said 750,000 internally displaced Syrians and more than 103,000 Syrian refugees in Turkey, Lebanon, Jordan and other Middle East countries were in need of help.

Western nations have proposed a Security Council resolution that would impose sanctions on Assad for not ending the use of heavy weapons in the conflict which the opposition says has left more than 17,000 people dead.

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