Iran backs political settlement of Syria crisis: Analyst

Press TV has talked to Wesam al-Bahrani, a political commentator from Tehran, about Iran’s welcoming of a Russia-US mediated ceasefire agreement in Syria aimed at putting an end to more than five years of bloody conflict in the Arab country.

The following is a rough transcription of the interview:

Press TV: What do you make of Iran’s welcoming of this deal?

Bahrani: From the first day of the Syrian crisis, over five and a half years ago, Iran has demanded a political solution to the conflict. The Iranian [Foreign] Ministry has extended its hand to moderate opposition political groups to sit down and talk to the Syrian government.

Iran has also invited Syrian political opposition parties. It hosted a conference in Tehran around two years ago and some leading opposition figures, I’m not talking here about the armed opposition of course, [rather] leading figures in Syria’s political opposition parties, sat down and discussed the terms for a truce.

However, this Iranian effort saw some extreme efforts from regional and [non-regional] countries such as America, Turkey and Saudi Arabia, to [make] the Iranian [initiatives] fail. At the same time, these same countries acted in ways which increased armed conflict in Syria. They increased the Syrian crisis by backing terrorist armed groups like Jabhat al-Nusrah and Daesh and Jaysh al-Fatah and Jaysh al-Islam. These are all terrorist organizations.

After these countries were convinced that the Syrian government would not fall, within weeks [or] months [or] years, and they realized that the Syrian army was backed by the Syrian people and [had] the support of Iran, Iraq and the Hezbollah resistance movement, and more recently the Russian intervention, Syria’s enemies [were] convinced that a political solution to topple the Syrian government will not succeed.

Of course, Russia would not have agreed to this ceasefire without the approval from Syria's government and its [allies] including Iran. Iran wants the ceasefire to succeed so [that] the political efforts can reach a satisfying result; so [that] a political solution can evolve in Syria for the Syrian people to go to the ballot boxes and have a life away from conflicts and bombs and war and destruction.

Iran is convinced that any solution to the Syrian crisis cannot happen without a ceasefire first. And at the same time, while Iran welcomes the ceasefire, Tehran is concerned about the armed groups and their commitment to this truce.

There were previous attempts to impose a ceasefire in Syria. However, the Takfiri groups and the terrorists tried to take advantage of these ceasefires to increase their weapon supplies and their military capabilities and to widen the areas that they occupied. But this new ceasefire has more reality to it, and it does seem that Syria’s enemies are now more serious about the cessation of hostilities.

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