Russia reiterates call for involving Iran in Syria conference

TEHRAN,May 21(MNA) – Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov has reiterated that Iran should participate in a proposed international conference on the Syrian crisis. According to RIA Novosti, Lavrov, in an interview with Rossiiskaya Gazeta on Sunday, which was scheduled to be published the next day, revealed that he had discussed Iran’s possible involvement in a conference to resolve the war in Syria when he met his U.S. counterpart John Kerry early in May. Russian and the United States agreed during Kerry’s visit to Moscow to set up a conference of international players in early June to end the war in Syria. Moscow wants to involve all the nations which took part in the Geneva conference on Syria last summer, and says without Iran’s participation the conference cannot succeed. Saudi Arabia and Iran were not involved in the Geneva talks in 2012, Lavrov recalled. “Our American partners blocked Iran, and the Saudis were not invited as compensation for the absence of Iran,” Lavrov said. “If we admit that Iran has a very solid influence on what is going on, then it is obliged to be represented in the negotiations as a participant in the external ring [of neighboring states],” Lavrov said. “I said this to John Kerry. He kind of agreed with this, but said that a number of states in the region were categorically opposed to this.” All the Syrian opposition groups should be represented in the talks, Lavrov said, including those struggling for a division of Syria. Lavrov also said that the duration of the conference should not be limited. “Some of our partners… think a few days or weeks are long enough. I consider this is counterproductive,” he said. In an interview posted on the Russian Foreign Ministry website on Thursday, Lavrov said that Iran must take part in the conference, criticizing Western states for attempting to limit the participants. “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,” Lavrov said at the time. He also noted, “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.”