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Syrian opposition refuses Iran’s participation in Vienna talks

October 29, 2015 at 10:47 am

Iran should not be allowed to join talks regarding resolution the Syrian conflict due to take place in Vienna, Austria, opposition leader George Sabra said yesterday.

In an interview with QudsPress, Sabra expressed his surprise as the decision to include Iran in the talks saying: “My surprise is not because Iran is placed in a hostile position against the Syrian people as it occupies the land and the will of the Syrian people and kills Syrians on a daily basis through their militias on the ground, but how would Iran play such a role in a political process whose basis it rejects; the Geneva I statement – which all the international political efforts have been based on? So how come Iran have a role in a political process that it did not recognised in the first place?”

Sabra called on the international powers to reconsider the decision to invite Iran to the meeting, saying: “We ask the friends of Syria and the states concerned with the Syrian file in the next Vienna meeting to reconsider their decision to engage Iran in the meetings unless it agrees on the political base of the process and withdraws its forces out of Syria.”

He added that the invitation to have the foreign ministers of Egypt, Lebanon and Iraq attend the meetings is a “betrayal of the Syrian revolution”.

Iranian foreign ministry spokeswoman Marzieh Afkham confirmed that the Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif will participate in the meeting which will be held in Vienna next Friday.