Syria talks bound to fail without Iran: Academic

The exclusion of Iran from the Syria peace talks is a sign that the West is no well-wisher for Syrians and the region and that the talks are bound to fail without Iran, an academic says.

Ismail Salami wrote in a column for the Press TV website ahead of a UN-sponsored conference on Syria in the Swiss town of Montreux which was held on Wednesday in the absence of the key regional player Iran.

“The key to foreign-fermented Syria crisis lies in the hands of Iran,” he wrote, noting that Iran’s absence from the Geneva-II peace conference “is only to be seen as a bad omen.”

Salami described Iran’s role as “not only important but also essential” for the settlement of the ongoing crisis in Syria.

He said governments ignoring Iran’s role are actually harboring “other intentions than safeguarding the interests of the Syrian people.”

Salami underscored the extent of violence on the ground in Syria where more than 100,000 people have been killed since the eruption of violence nearly three years ago.

“A human catastrophe of biblical proportions has taken place the memory of which will rankle for all the time to come,” he wrote.

He called into question the sincerity of Western governments and their allies for finding a solution to the Syrian crisis, saying, “What is seen in the world of realities stands in stark contradiction with what is being claimed.”

Salami said “no flicker of light” is in sight for Syria due to the complexity of the situation and the fact that the political scale is in favor of “the West and the powers that secretly seek to overthrow” Syrian President Bashar al-Assad in a bid to “install a US-friendly puppet regime in the region.”

“The talks will lead nowhere and the purported intention of the talks is only to politically disarm the government of Assad and force the Syrian President to step down,” wrote Salami.