Saudis causing confusion in Syria talks: Analyst

Press TV has interviewed Ibrahim Mousawi, a political analyst in Beirut, to discuss the UN-backed talks on Syria aimed at ending nearly five years of war in the Arab country.

The following is a rough transcription of the interview.

Press TV: Let’s look at the way that these Saudi-backed opposition groups conducted themselves by first saying they are not going to attend, then saying they are going to attend and in the meantime one of the bones of contention was the fact that you have groups like Jaysh al-Islam and Ahrar al-Sham who are deemed a terrorist group, not be deemed as such by the UN. Don’t you think that that is a conflict of interest when it comes to settling this crisis?

Mousawi: Well of course if we follow up what is happening in Geneva, now we know very well that there is a kind of confusion. This confusion is not only on the side of the so-called opposition parties. We are talking here about the terrorist groups - Ahrar al-Sham and Jaysh al-Islam and others - all those who are being backed up by Saudi Arabia.

The confusion is in Saudi Arabia itself. They are conducting a topsy-turvy, irrational policy in Yemen, in Syria and different places even inside Saudi Arabia itself. That is why we see this kind of condition that they put and then they drop the conditions and then pressure is being exercised over them from the United Nations itself, then the United States itself is advising them [to] seize the opportunity, this is a historical opportunity that you can never get back if you are going to drop it now. So here you are talking about a complete confusion, about a lack of vision and about the lack of choices because of the developments that happened on ground.

We know now very well that the upper hand is for the Syrian government and that is why they were like making casting comments from the kind that the Syrian government is the only, if you want, side that is apparent there. When you talk about the so-called opposition, you do not have one unified opposition, you do not have a really recognized opposition and at the same time while they are very weak on ground they are trying as much as they can to dictate conditions that will never be responded to by the government and even by the international community that came to understand very well what we are talking about here are terrorist groups not opposition in the real sense of the word.

Press TV: One of the countries present in these talks is Iran. We know that Iran has agreed to participate. Do you think that there is going to be enough weight given to what Iran has deemed to be the focal point and that is that the issue of terrorism needs to be dealt with first and foremost? Why is that not being at the top of the list when it comes to these talks?

Mousawi: Well we know very well when it comes to Iran, Iran is the fulcrum of the situation in region as a whole in the whole region. Now Iran represents a very important political player that is being capable because of its credibility among the allies and among those who are in crisis. Iran has always been next to the Syrian people and the Syrian government has always been supporting the Palestinian people and Lebanon, in Iraq, as well in Afghanistan.

So here you are talking about a very influential, powerful, regional player that has its extension that would spread, and its influence that would spread to the whole world. We know very well that at certain point the Saudis have put certain kinds of conditions that they do not want the Iranians on the table while the Americans and the Europeans who came to their senses and who came to be rational in their calculations, wanted Iran to come because Iran would serve, would be very influential in maintaining the stability and helping bringing the different sides come together.

Now maybe they are shy to show this. I mean Iran is very influential, is there, but they are not putting it at the top of the image maybe because they want to give certain alleviation for the crisis and for the problem of certain regional players like Saudi Arabia and others.

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