Iran Urges End to Foreign Support for Terrorism in Syria
TEHRAN (Tasnim) - Iran’s foreign ministry on Wednesday called on foreign countries to stop supporting terrorists in Syria, and underlined that campaign against terrorism should be top on the agenda of any regional or international conference on Syria.
Issuing a statement laying out Iran’s standpoints on the ongoing Geneva 2 talks, the ministry voiced grave concern over the presence of terrorist groups in Syria, stressing that the priority in any regional and international effort regarding the country’s crisis, including the Geneva 2 conference, should be confronting terrorism.
“The spread of terrorism in Syria is a peril that threatens all regional and trans-regional countries,” the statement read.
It underlined that crimes committed by terrorist militants against the Syrian citizens are cases of "crimes against humanity" and that terrorists’ backers must be held accountable for them.
Iran’s foreign ministry further regretted that while some terrorist sponsors have been invited to the Geneva talks, Iran, which is at the forefront of fighting terrorism, was invited with a precondition, an invitation which was later withdrawn.
The Geneva 2 Conference opened in Montreux, Switzerland, on Wednesday aiming to find a solution to the three-year conflict in Syria.
It is the second sequel of Geneva 1 conference held in June 2012 in which international parties laid out a peace plan for Syria that calls for a transitional governing body.
On Sunday, United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon had officially invited Iran to attend the first day of the Geneva 2 peace conference, but later on Monday, he withdrew his invitation to Iran in an extraordinary turnabout, under pressure from the United States.
Syria's war that started in 2011 has killed over 130,000 people so far and forced more than 2 million to flee abroad. Another 4 million have been displaced inside the country.
