Kerry says Iran could be helpful on Syria during Geneva II conference

US Secretary of State John Kerry has announced that the Islamic Republic of Iran could be helpful even on the sidelines of a second round of Geneva talks on Syria.

The top US diplomat said on Sunday that it would be difficult to see how Tehran could be a “ministerial partner” in the upcoming negotiations because it did not participate in the first round of talks, Reuters reported.

However, Kerry said Iran can play a constructive role on the sidelines even if it was not a formal participant.

“Now could they contribute from the sidelines? Are their ways for them, conceivably, to weigh in? Can their mission that is already in Geneva… be there in order to help the process? It may be that there are ways that could happen,” Kerry said.

The Geneva II conference is set to begin on January 22 in Switzerland.

American officials had earlier said Iran should not attend the meeting because it had not signed on to the “Geneva 1” framework last year.

In December, UN Syria envoy Lakhdar Brahimi said that Iran’s participation in the Syria peace conference has not been decided yet due to the US opposition.

UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, however, believes that Iran should be invited to the peace conference on Syria.

On Friday, Ban’s spokesperson Martin Nesirky said Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and John Kerry are scheduled to talk over Iran’s presence.

“Russia and the US will hold talks on the issue since they are the states which called for holding the conference,” Nesirky said.

In an interview with Press TV, American geopolitical analyst Eric Draitser said American officials “are still not convinced that Iran’s participation would be the right thing to do.”

“Washington would be ill-advised to allow Iranians to be involved in the process because it seems like it would be a self-defeating situation where the Iranians will be part of a negotiated solution thereby denying the United States and their Israeli proxies the regional hegemony that they seek,” Draitser said.

Syria, which has been gripped by a deadly conflict for nearly three years, blames the United States and its allies for fueling the flames of the unrest in the country.