Iran could join Syria talks with US and Russia

Syrian government forces retook the ancient Christian town of Maaloula in early 2014 after it was overrun by Syrian rebels and al-Qaida-linked militants. (Alexander Kots/Komsomolskaya Pravda via AP)

Iran is likely to be invited for the first time to international talks with the US and Russia over the Syrian conflict after a longstanding opposition, the US says.

US state department spokesman John Kirby said it was unclear if Iran’s leaders would attend the talks, starting in Vienna on Thursday. Top envoys from the US, Russia, Arab and European nations are taking part.

Syria’s Western-backed opposition and the US’s Gulf Arab allies have long opposed Iran’s role in the Syrian war. Mr Kirby told reporters on Thursday that he expected Iran “to be invited to participate” in the talks in Vienna, as reported by BBC.

“Whether they come or not is up to Iranian leaders,” he said. “It’s important for us that key partners are in these discussions… They [Iran] could be a key partner, but they are not now.”

Officials in Washington insisted the move was a “genuine multilateral invitation” and implied they had succeeded in overcoming Saudi Arabian opposition to Iran attending the talks in Vienna on Friday.

The US insists that a central goal of the peace talks also remains the removal of current president Bashar al-Assad, who it says has been responsible for too many civilian deaths to remain a credible part of any future government.

Iran is Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s closest ally. It is believed to have spent billions of dollars over the past four years helping his government, providing military advisers and subsidized weapons, as well as lines of credit and oil.

It is also thought to have been influential in the decision of Lebanon’s Hezbollah movement to send fighters to Syria to assist pro-Assad forces.

The presence of Iran, which, along with Russia, has been a crucial ally of the Syrian government, could be a crucial factor in bringing the competing external players in the conflict to a common agreement on how to end the conflict.