No one can determine destiny of Syrian people: Iranian president

TEHRAN,Oct.7(MNA) – Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said that no one can determine the destiny of the Syrian people but all countries should help the Syrians to build a national consensus and hold free elections. National dialogue is the only way to end the country’s crisis, Ahmadinejad said during his interview with Al Jazeera television on Tuesday on the sidelines of the 67th session of the United Nations General Assembly in New York. According to Reuters, Ahmadinejad said that the Syrian people should choose their own path. “There is another way to find a solution, it is national, mutual understanding in order for there to be elections in the future,” he said. Every world power involved in the Syrian crisis "had (made) its own mistakes," he said, warning that the Syrian conflict would spread to other countries in the region if it was left unsolved. "Tomorrow, the atmosphere in Jordan may be like what Syria is experiencing. Thus, we must search for a practical and good solution for all the peoples of the area, otherwise catastrophes will fall upon us all." Ahmadinejad suggested the Syrian crisis was being used to try to undermine Iran. "All the Syrian people are respectable, but some want to settle accounts with Iran," he said. Ahmadinejad said that he feared that calls for military intervention in Syria were growing. "I have opposed war, but those who want things to be settled through dialogue are a minority and perhaps the majority are in favor of going ahead in the context of war," he said. Iran had long enjoyed good relations with Syria, he added.