Iran ready to help end Syria crisis: Brahimi

UN-Arab League Special Representative for Syria Lakhdar Brahimi says Iran is ready to help resolve the crisis in Syria even without officially participating in the upcoming Syria peace conference.

Brahimi said that “Tehran is not yet out of the list,” and “I am convinced that [Iran] could play a role even without officially attending the conference”.

On Friday, after a day of meetings with the five permanent members of the UN Security Council and Syria’s neighbors Turkey, Jordan, Lebanon and Iraq, Brahimi said that Iran’s participation in the conference has not been decided upon yet due to the US opposition.

“The US is still not convinced Iran’s participation would be the right thing to do,” he said.

However, he said the United Nations and the Arab League would also like Iranian representatives to attend the event.

Later on Friday in a telephone conversation with Brahimi, Iran’s Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif called for focusing on Syrian-Syrian talks to resolve the crisis in the Arab country.

According to the UN envoy, about 30 countries, including Saudi Arabia, Algeria, Brazil, Egypt, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates, would be invited to the day-long conference on January 22 in the Swiss city of Montreux.

The Syrian opposition has also opposed Iran’s participation in the long-awaited peace conference.

However, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Gennady Gatilov on Friday stressed that Iran should be invited to the upcoming international peace talks, emphasizing that the Syrian crisis could not be settled without Iranian engagement.

Syria has been gripped by a deadly crisis since 2011. Reports indicate that the Western powers and their regional allies — especially Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and Turkey — are supporting the militants operating inside the country.

According to the United Nations, more than 100,000 people have been killed and millions displaced in the violence.