PHOTO: Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and Iranian counterpart Mohammad Javad Zarif in Vienna on Thursday
After years of exclusion from international discussions on Syria’s crisis, Iran joins Russian-led talks in Vienna on Friday.
Earlier this week, the US suddenly withdrew its long-standing objection to Tehran’s presence. The Islamic Republic immediately announced that Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif was in consultation with Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov.
Soon after his arrival in Vienna on Thursday night, Zarif met Lavrov and US Secretary of State John Kerry in separate discussions.
Iran has played a significant if costly role in the Russian military build-up inside Syria that provided the political leverage for the conference. While Moscow’s warplanes bombed positions — about 80% of them controlled by rebels — in support of a six-front Syrian military offensive, Tehran provided commanders and fighters, as did Hezbollah and Iranian-led Iraqi militia.
At least 28 Iranian soldiers, including the head of operations inside Syria and four other commanders, have been killed since October 7. However, the initiative succeeded not only in shifting the US position but in bringing Assad’s foes Turkey and Saudi Arabia to the table in Vienna.
Iran maintained pressure on Riyadh on Thursday. The commander of armed forces, Hassan Firouzabdi, said the Saudi presence at the conference is “suspicious and illegitimate” because it is a “war criminal” for “terrorist actions in Iraq, Syria, and Lebanon”, support for the Islamic State, and attacks on “hospitals, schools, and people’s homes, and the destruction of Yemen’s infrastructure”.
Brigadier General Ahmed Vahidi, a former Defense Minister, declared, “Today, after four years [everyone] has come to the conclusion that…Iran has proved its success”, while Deputy Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian added another warning: “Those who intend to pass Mr. Bashar Assad know well that in the framework of the political process, only the Syrian people decide their own fate.”
Asked about the Iranian military escalation inside Syria, the Supreme Leader’s senior aide Ali Akbar Velayati said, “We have a duty to defend our religious brothers and we will defend Muslim lands.”