28 Mar 2024
Wednesday 29 April 2015 - 10:03
Story Code : 162669

EU wants Iran to play 'major but positive role' in Syria

(Reuters) - The European Union's top diplomat on Tuesday voiced the hope thatIran would play an important but constructive role in a renewedUnited Nationspush to restart negotiations aimed at ending the four-year civil war inSyria.

The U.N. envoy toSyria, Staffan de Mistura, has said he will begin meeting in May with the country's government, opposition groups and regional powers includingIranto assess by the end of June whether there is any hope brokering an end to the war.

EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini, who meets Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif later in New York on Tuesday, said it was crucial that the EU and six world powers successfully conclude nuclear talks with Tehran, which she said could boost Iran's regional role in a positive manner.

"The best possible approach you can have is ... on one side have a positive outcome of the nuclear talks so that we can be sure that they cannot develop a nuclear weapon," she said.

"On the other side, call forIranto play a major, major but positive, role onSyriain particular, to encourage the regime to ... (support) aSyrian-led transition," she said, referring to a 2012 U.N. plan for a political transition inSyriathat has yet to be translated into reality.

The deadline for a final nuclear deal withIranis June 30.Iranand the six powers reached a tentative deal on April 2.

U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon asked de Mistura earlier this month to "focus much more to re-launch a political process" after his attempt to broker a local truce in Aleppo failed to materialize.

The United States and some Arab countries have resisted the inclusion ofIranin Syrian peace talks, because they see Tehran as the problem, not the solution.Iranhas been supporting Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, a staunch ally.

Mogherini suggested that includingIranwas crucial. "I understand very well the concerns of many Arab countries, not only Arab countries, in the region on the role ofIran," she said. "But I am also convinced that it would be naive to imagine that a country likeIrancould simply disappear from the map."

Mogherini will also meet U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry in Washington on Wednesday. She said she will discuss disagreements on sanctions and other sticking points in the nuclear talks with both Zarif and Kerry.

By Reuters
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