Day: January 20, 2014
Shambolic
UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon’s invitation today to Iran to attend threw the scheduled opening of peace talks on Syria Wednesday in Montreux into doubt. The United States says it wants Iran to accept publicly as the purpose of the conference creation of a transitional governing body with full executive powers (TGBFEP), as provided for in the June 2012 “Geneva 1” communique. Iran has said it won’t do that, but the Secretary General says Tehran understands what the meeting is about. The Syrian Opposition Coalition (SOC), which Saturday voted to attend in Montreux and the subsequent “Geneva 2” meeting, says it won’t come if Iran does without withdrawing its troops from Syria and its support from Bashar al Asad. That won’t happen.
This is a mess. The merits of an invitation to Iran are clear. Tehran’s direct military engagement with the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps as well as its sponsorship of Hizbollah to fight on behalf of Bashar al Asad makes it indispensable to any substantial progress in the talks. But it is hard for the SOC to attend if Iran does. Going to Montreux to sit at the table with Iran could further discredit its relative moderates and lead to resignations, thus reducing further its already minimal usefulness as a negotiating partner. Read more
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