Iran tries to calm Syria crisis
BEIRUT – As Syrian forces struggled to drive rebels from the country’s largest city, the regime’s key ally Iran tried Thursday to start an alternative political process to address the crisis.
Iran gathered an array of nations ranging from strong supporters of Damascus to far-flung nations a world away from the Syrian civil war.
The one-day forum is unlikely to result in any international consensus, but it shows Iran’s resolve to stand by President Bashar Assad as his forces try to crush the 17-month-old uprising.
On Thursday, Syrian rebels said they were low on ammunition but still managed to put up resistance against a regime ground offensive in the city of Aleppo, a center of fighting for more than two weeks.
Tehran billed Thursday’s conference as a way to focus on dialogue – an alternative to Western-led initiatives that call for Assad to give up power.
Iran has said in the past that the Syrian regime’s critics fail to take into account violence by the rebels.
“Iran is against the killing of unarmed people and citizens by any side,” Iranian Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi said at the gathering.
He also warned that sending weapons to the opposition will only fuel the crisis, and he accused rebels of using civilians as “human shields.”
Syrian rebels last week intercepted a bus carrying 48 Iranians in a Damascus suburb and seized them. Rebels claimed the men are military personnel, including some members of Iran’s powerful Revolutionary Guard, who were on a “reconnaissance mission” to help Assad’s crackdown.
Iran, however, says the 48 were pilgrims visiting a Shiite shrine in Damascus. Salehi said Wednesday that some of the pilgrims are retired members of the army and Revolutionary Guard.
The overwhelmingly Sunni Muslim rebels have also seized 11 Lebanese Shiite pilgrims who have been held in northern Syria since May.
Salehi said some 30 countries attended the meeting, including Russia and China, as well as far-off Benin, Cuba and Mauritania. The meeting was called at short notice, and most countries were represented at the ambassador level.
Russia in the past has urged the West to allow Tehran to take part in international discussions on how to settle the Syrian crisis, arguing that the Islamic republic could play an important role. Moscow has been the main protector and ally of Assad’s regime, shielding it from U.N. sanctions over its brutal crackdown on an uprising that has evolved into a full-blown civil war.
The U.S. dismissed the Iranian gathering.
“We think the Iranian behavior in Syria is destructive,” State Department spokesman Patrick Ventrell said. “It’s just hard for us to imagine that after putting so much effort into keeping Assad in power … how they can be a constructive actor in facilitating a political solution to the crisis.”
On Thursday, government troops and rebels clashed in opposition bastions of Aleppo, a city of 3 million people.
The state news agency claimed Wednesday that Assad’s force had regained control of the Salaheddine neighborhood, the main rebel area in Aleppo. But activists said rebels were still putting up a fight there on Thursday.