Iran urges impartial UN role in Syria

Iran’s Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif says the United Nations should play an active and impartial role in Syria and help the country reach national consensus.

In a meeting with new UN Special envoy to Syria Staffan de Mistura in New York on Tuesday, Zarif hailed his proper measures to confer with Syrian officials and groups with the purpose of arriving at political reconciliation.

He stressed the importance of battling the Takfiri ISIL militants and said, “The fight against terrorism, whose priority has always been stressed by the Islamic Republic of Iran, has today turned into a priority for the international community.”

The Takfiri ISIL militants have seized large swathes of Iraq and Syria. They have carried out heinous crimes in the two countries including mass execution of people.

The UN envoy, for his part, said it is important to exchange views with all sides in Syria in order to reach broad-based reconciliation in the Arab state.

De Mistura added that he would pay visits to regional states to hold consultations and reach a better understanding of the countries’ views including Iran about main approaches to broad-based political reconciliation in Syria.

According to reports, since a few days ago the United States and its allies have carried out at least 200 airstrikes against the ISIL militants operating inside Syria. The strikes were carried out without approval of the United Nations. The Syrian government says the US had informed if of the strikes in advance.

Syria has been gripped by deadly violence since 2011. The Western powers and their regional allies — especially Qatar, Saudi Arabia and Turkey — are reportedly supporting the militants operating inside Syria.

More than 191,000 people have been killed in over three years of fighting in Syria, says the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), describing the figure a probable “underestimate of the real total number of people killed.”

SF/HMV/HRB