TEHRAN (Dispatches) — Iran held Sunday a conference to reconcile Syria's government with opposition factions and end the country's civil war.
The one-day meeting of some 200 opposition members and Syria's National Reconciliation Minister Ali Haidar could be a step toward a future, broad-based opposition gathering.
Iran's Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi warned at the opening of the meeting that providing opposition groups with heavy arms could put the entire region at risk of "organized terrorism".
He said that arming Assad's opponents, as Damascus accuses Qatar and Saudi Arabia of doing, violates international law and principles of non-intervention in countries' domestic affairs.
Salehi reiterated Iran's traditional stance on Syria, blaming "foreign intervention and irresponsible armed groups" for the country's uprising. He said Iran supports peaceful solutions to end the crisis.
The conference is seen as a reaction to last week's meeting in Qatar in which opposition groups formed an umbrella coalition to topple Assad.
Salehi described the meeting as "an important step" towards peace in Syria, and said Iran strongly supports any move which can lead to the restoration of peace and stability in the Muslim country.
The foreign minister said the meeting aims to "help restore peace and tranquility" in Syria and revive its anti-Israeli position in the region.
He blamed the hegemonic states for the current violence in Syrian, saying unlike the hegemonic countries, Iran has always sought f peace and stability in the Middle East.
"Iran has supported any step which can help to the restoration of clam and stability in the country."
The minister said Iran sees "political solution and comprehensive dialogue" as the best way to end the current crisis in Syria.
"We believe that military and violent options will not resolve the crisis in Syria and will rather spread terrorism and crisis and instability to the other regional countries, which would serve the interests of no side," Salehi added.
In August, Iran held a previous conference on the Syria conflict, attended by representatives of 30 countries.
The Iranian foreign minister said Syria’s National Dialogue meeting could be an important step toward resolving the country’s ongoing crisis and restoring peace and stability.
Salehi also slammed the international community’s indifference to the Israeli regime’s aggression against the Gaza Strip.
“The approach of the Zionist Regime [of Israel] results from the lack of a firm reaction by the international community, particularly human rights organizations, towards the war crimes committed by this regime in the past and present.”
Salehi added that the international community’s indifference has led to the continuation and escalation of Israel’s crimes.
He said regional institutions, particularly the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC), can take firm measures to prevent the repetition of such aggression.
The Iranian foreign minister added that “Arab countries and particularly the Arab League and Muslim countries” should focus all their attention on the main enemy and take practical measures to help the innocent people of Gaza.
Iraq's former Prime Minister Ibrahim Jafari said both the Syrian people and government want a domestic solution to the current crisis in their country, stressing that the Syrian unrest is not at all a popular Arab uprising similar to what happened in Tunisia and Egypt.
Jafari emphasized Syrians' right to hold a free and democratic election, and said Iraq is against any solutions to solve the crisis in Syria through foreign intervention but wants Syrians to settle their differences themselves.
He underlined the non-interference in Syria's domestic affairs, and said, "We all must respect people's dignity in Syria and prevent war and violence in Syria from spreading to the whole region."
