Rouhani: Syria should get ready for elections

Iranian President Hassan Rouhani says free elections are the only solution to end the ongoing crisis in Syria.

“Iran supports restoration of security, stability and free elections in Syria,” Rouhani said in a Wednesday meeting with Syria’s parliament speaker Mohammad Jihad al-Laham, who is in Tehran to participate in a meeting of the Parliamentary Union of the Organization of the Islamic Cooperation Member States (PUOICM).

The Iranian president hailed the Syrian government’s stance in the recent round of peace talks known as the Geneva 2 Conference aimed at finding a political solution to the crisis.

During the Geneva II conference the so-called Syrian National Coalition (SNC) repeated its demand that Syrian President Bashar al-Assad step down.

The Syrian government rejected the demand, arguing that the foreign-backed SNC does not represent the Syrian opposition.

Highlighting that holding free elections is the ultimate solution to the crisis, Rouhani said that “it is very important for Iran that Syria reaches stability and becomes ready to hold such elections.”

Laham, for his part, hailed the Iranian president’s proposal of a World Against Violence and Extremism (WAVE) which was unanimously adopted as a UN resolution.

He said that the resolution could have a positive impact in countering terrorism in the region and the world.

Syria sank into war in 2011 when pro-reform protests turned into a massive insurgency following the intervention of Western and regional states.

The unrest, which took in terrorist groups from across Europe, the Middle East and North Africa, has transpired as one of the bloodiest conflicts in recent history.