A senior diplomatic advisor to Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei has called for a diplomatic settlement of the ongoing crisis in Ukraine.
“The two sides of the conflict in the country should negotiate with each other and promote peace and security in the region by resolving their differences,” Ali Akbar Velayati said on Monday.

Unrest erupted in Ukraine in November 2013, when now-ousted President Viktor Yanukovych refrained from signing an Association Agreement with the European Union in favor of closer ties with Russia.

On February 23, the Ukrainian parliament ousted Yanukovych and named Oleksandr Turchynov, the legislature’s newly-elected speaker, as interim president.

Western governments and Moscow have been accusing each other of meddling in the internal affairs of Ukraine and fueling the crisis in the country.

Touching on the Syrian crisis, Velayati described the efforts by United Nations-Arab League Special Representative for Syria Lakhdar Brahimi to settle the crisis in the Raba country as “inappropriate” and hence “fruitless.”
“Brahimi should be realistic and defend the rights of the Syrian people,” he said.
Velayati denounced the idea of holding negotiations which put some foreign-backed terrorists on an equal footing with the Syrian nation as an inappropriate measure which “has no legal basis and runs counter to international law.”

Brahimi is scheduled to report to the UN Security Council next month during the week of March 10-16.

The second round of talks between delegations representing the Syrian government and the foreign-backed opposition in the Swiss city of Geneva hit a deadlock on February 15 with both sides sticking to their positions.

The Syrian delegation said fighting terrorism should be the top priority, but the opposition insisted that formation of a transitional government and resignation of President Bashar al-Assad must come first.

By Press TV

 

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