Ahmadinejad: Free Elections Best Solution to Syrian Crisis

Iran’s President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said Tehran has made continued efforts to find a negotiated end to the Syrian crisis through talks between the Damascus government and the opposition groups, adding that the best solution to the Syrian crisis is holding free elections in that country.

“National understanding is the correct path, because we believe that holding free elections is the best solution to resolving that country’s problem,” Ahmadinejad said in a press conference in Tehran on Tuesday.

He said Tehran has taken action to “speak to both the Syrian government and opposition and have them agree on holding free elections”.

“This war has nothing for Syria other than damage and loss. We do not tell them what to do, rather we just want to help them to come to an understanding with each other,” the president added.

He stressed that both the Syrian government and the opposition should come to terms with each other to help the country make progress.

“Justice, freedom and respect and the manner a country should be administered are all amongst the rights of nations,” the Iranian president reiterated.

Syria has been experiencing unrest since March 2011 with organized attacks by well-armed gangs against Syrian police forces and border guards being reported across the country.

Hundreds of people, including members of the security forces, have been killed, when some protest rallies turned into armed clashes.

The government blames outlaws, saboteurs, and armed terrorist groups for the deaths, stressing that the unrest is being orchestrated from abroad.

In October 2011, calm was eventually restored in the Arab state after President Assad started a reform initiative in the country, but Israel, the US and its Arab allies are seeking hard to bring the country into chaos through any possible means. Tel Aviv, Washington and some Arab capitals have been staging various plots in the hope of stirring unrests in Syria once again.

The US and its western and regional allies have long sought to topple Bashar al-Assad and his ruling system. Media reports said that the Syrian rebels and terrorist groups have received significantly more and better weapons in recent weeks, a crime paid for by the Persian Gulf Arab states and coordinated by the United States.