Syria Conference Failure Brings Discredit on Trans-Regional Powers: MP
TEHRAN (Tasnim) – The Geneva 2 peace conference on Syria has resulted in nothing but failure, a prominent Iranian legislator said, and added that futility of the long-awaited gathering has only brought discredit upon extraneous powers and certain international organizations.
“The only achievement of the (Geneva 2) conference was that it has further discredited certain international institutions and trans-regional powers in the world’s public opinion,” member of the Iranian Parliament’s National Security and Foreign Policy Commission Mohammad Saleh Jokar told the Tasnim News Agency on Saturday.
“As predicted, the gathering ended in failure ultimately,” the lawmaker added.
Explaining the reasons behind the failure of the Geneva 2 meeting, Jokar said a number of the foreign countries insisted that the results of a previous peace conference should be taken into account, something he described as “disregard for the realities on the ground in the region."
Another reason for the impasse at the end of the negotiations, the legislator noted, was absence of influential countries, such as Iran, which is completely familiar with the issues in Syria and plays a significant role in the regional developments.
The conference with the aim of settling the prolonged crisis in Syria opened in the Swiss town of Montreux on January 22.
But the first round of talks has ended without any significant breakthrough as rival sides blamed each other for lack of progress.
United Nations Arab League envoy to Syria, Lakhdar Brahimi, said on Friday that while talks between Syria's government and opposition had made slim progress, they had raised hopes for a solution to the country's civil war.
Brahimi said he saw some positive steps and common ground, but that the gaps between the sides remained wide.
Syria's war that started in 2011 has killed over 130,000 people so far and forced more than 2 million to flee abroad. Another 4 million have been displaced inside the country.
Iranian officials have on different occasions insisted that a political approach would be the sole solution to the three-year-old crisis in Syria, saying that campaign against terrorism should be top on the agenda of any regional or international conference on Syria.
