Annan says Iran must join Syria talks
BEIRUT — United Nations peace envoy Kofi Annan waded into big power politics on Tuesday, insisting regional heavyweight Iran should be involved in efforts to find a peaceful solution to the Syria crisis despite the West’s firm rejection of a role for Tehran.
The United States and its NATO and Gulf Arab allies are opposed to involving the Islamic Republic, which strongly backs Syrian President Bashar Assad and is regarded as their main adversary in the Middle East. Such diplomatic rifts have prevented effective international action to end the 16-month-old conflict in Syria.
“Iran has a role to play. And my presence here explains that I believe in that,” Annan said after talks in Tehran with Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi.
“I have received encouragement and cooperation with the minister and the (Iranian) government,” Annan said. Washington has said any Iranian participation would be counter-productive.
The former UN secretary general said Iran had made clear that if the crisis got “out of hand and spread to the region, it could lead to consequences that none of us can imagine.”
Russia, which along with China opposes any external move to tip the balance against Assad, has said Iran should be involved. Moscow on Tuesday suggested hosting regular meetings of an “action group” which would include the Syrian opposition.
Annan said after talks in Damascus on Monday that Assad had suggested easing the conflict on a step-by-step basis, starting with districts that have suffered the worst violence.
After his talks in Tehran, Annan met Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki in Baghdad. Assad and Maliki both have close relations with Iran, a Shiite Muslim power vying with Sunni Gulf Arab states for predominance in the wider region.
Annan was trying to enlist the support of regional powers in efforts to revive his moribund plan for ending the crisis, in which rebels are fighting to topple the authoritarian Assad.
Annan said the first attempt to call a truce on April 12 had failed. He underlined the risk of the conflict “spilling over” to neighbouring states and noted that the mandate of UN monitors in Syria expires on July 21.
Annan said Assad had proposed “building an approach from the ground up in some of the districts where we have extreme violence to try and contain the violence in those districts and, step by step, build up and end the violence across the country”.
He said he needed to discuss the proposal with the Syrian opposition and could not give further details. It was not clear when he planned to do so.
Opposition leaders say there can be no peaceful transition unless Assad, who crushed popular protests from the moment they began, relinquishes power first. Assad, whose family has ruled Syria for 42 years, has ruled out leaving office in such a way.
Annan is due to brief the UN Security Council in New York on Wednesday. The 15-member council must make a decision on what to do with the UN mission in Syria, known as UNSMIS, before July 20 when its mandate expires. It is due to vote on July 18.
The Council approved in April the deployment of up to 300 unarmed military observers to Syria to oversee a ceasefire, part of a six-point peace plan proposed by Annan, but it was never honoured and the monitors are now confined to hotels.