Russia says Iran must take part in Syria talks

TEHRAN,May 18(MNA) – Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said that Iran must take part in a proposed international conference on the Syrian crisis, emphasizing the very important role of Iran as an external player, Reuters reported. Last week Moscow and Washington proposed to hold an international meeting in early June to find ways to solve Syria’s two-year-old conflicts, with the participation of representatives of the Syrian government and opposition. Iran, which supports Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, has welcomed the proposal and expressed hope that it would be a part of the process. However, certain Western states are loath to see Iran participate in the conference. “Among some of our Western colleagues, there is a desire to narrow the circle of external participants and begin the process from a very small group of countries in a framework which, in essence, would predetermine the negotiating teams, agenda, and maybe even the outcome of talks,” Reuters quoted Lavrov as saying in an interview posted on Russia’s Foreign Ministry website on Thursday. “One must not exclude a country like Iran from this process because of geopolitical preferences. It is a very important external player. But there is no agreement on this yet,” Lavrov said in the interview given to a Lebanese television station. Last year the foreign ministers of the UN Security Council’s five permanent members - Russia, the United States, China, France and Britain - all attended the Geneva talks along with Turkey, Kuwait, Qatar, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, Arab League head Nabil Elaraby and EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton on Syria.