Iran has been invited to attend a meeting of foreign ministers in Switzerland on Wednesday ahead of internationally brokered peace talks between Syria's warring factions, the United Nations said Sunday, a move that could potentially end the war-torn nation's negotiations.
U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon told reporters Sunday afternoon that Iran's Foreign Minister Javad Zarif has pledged that his country "would play a positive and constructive role" in the meeting to be held in the Swiss city of Montreux.
Ban says Iran is among 10 additional countries invited to attend the Montreux meeting that precedes the talks scheduled to begin Friday between Syrian President Bashar Assad's delegation and Syrian opposition groups at the U.N. headquarters in Geneva. Thirty other countries had already accepted invitations.
Ban also said that Iran has agreed to endorse principles from a previous peace conference calling for a transitional government in Syria.
But the Syrian National Coalition, which was under huge pressure from its western and Arab sponsors to attend the peace talks, blasted the United Nations' announcement.
"The Syrian Coalition announces that they will withdraw their attendance in Geneva 2 unless Ban Ki-moon retracts Iran's invitation," Reuters reported National Coalition spokesman Louay Safi, citing a Twitter post.
A U.S. State Department spokeswoman said Iran's invitation is conditioned on the Islamic Republic's public support for a transitional governing body.
"This is something Iran has never done publicly and something we have long made clear is required," State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki said in a statement. "We also remain deeply concerned about Iran's contributions to the Assad regime's brutal campaign against its own people, which has contributed to the growth of extremism and instability in the region. If Iran does not fully and publicly accept the Geneva communiqué, the invitation must be rescinded."
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
0 komentar:
Posting Komentar