U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has invited Iran to participate
in upcoming peace talks on Syria, a move that immediately angered the
opposition.
The invitation to this week's opening-day
session of the so-called Geneva 2 came as he held a surprise news conference at
U.N. headquarters Sunday night.
"As I have said repeatedly, I believe
strongly that Iran needs to be part of the solution to the Syrian crisis,"
Ban said.
The Secretary-General added that he has spoken
"at length" with Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif in recent days.
"He has assured me that, like all the
other countries invited to the opening day discussions in Montreux, Iran
understands that the basis of the talks is the full implementation of the 30
June 2012 Geneva Communique, including the Action Plan.
A spokesman for the Syrian National Coalition,
the country's main opposition group, reacted angrily to the news but stopped
short of saying that his organization would pull out of talks.
"This is a deal breaker for the National
Coalition. If they insist to bring Iran, we will have to go back to the drawing
board again," Louay Safi told CNN by phone from Turkey.
"We don't want to negotiate with Iran, we
want to negotiate with the regime. Before we go (to the conference), Iran has
to say they will pull out all the fighters (inside Syria) allied with it,"
Safi said.
The United States similarly expressed concern
about the Secretary-General's invitation.
"Foreign Minister Zarif and I agree that
the goal of the negotiations is to establish, by mutual consent, a transitional
governing body with full executive powers. It was on that basis that Foreign
Minister Zarif pledged that Iran would play a positive and constructive role in
Montreux," Ban said.
Zarif said on Iranian state TV that Iran will
send a delegation to the Geneva 2 conference, but will not accept any
preconditions for their attendance.
Talks are due to start in the Swiss city
Wednesday.
"The United States views the UN Secretary
General's invitation to Iran to attend the upcoming Geneva conference as conditioned
on Iran's explicit and public support for the full implementation of the Geneva
communique including the establishment of a transitional governing body by
mutual consent with full executive authorities. This is something Iran has
never done publicly and something we have long made clear is required.
"We also remain deeply concerned about
Iran's contributions to the (President Bashar) Assad regime's brutal campaign
against its own people, which has contributed to the growth of extremism and
instability in the region. If Iran does not fully and publicly accept the
Geneva communique, the invitation must be rescinded," said State
Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki.
The goal of the talks -- dubbed Geneva 2 in
recognition of a similar effort in the Swiss city in 2012 -- is to set up a
transitional government that would end the violence that has wracked the
country since March 2011, killing more than 100,000 people.
At least 155 people were killed Sunday,
according to the Local Coordination Committees of Syria, a network of
opposition activists. Nearly half of the deaths, 70, occurred in Aleppo, the
group said. with CNN
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