MIDEAST-CRISIS/SYRIA-SAUDI Saudi FM says difficult to see role for Iran in Syria peacemaking

Record ID: 135965

  • Title: MIDEAST-CRISIS/SYRIA-SAUDI Saudi FM says difficult to see role for Iran in Syria peacemaking
  • Date: 19th October 2015
  • Summary: RIYADH, SAUDI ARABIA (OCTOBER 19, 2015) (REUTERS) ***WARNING CONTAINS FLASH PHOTOGRAPHY*** GERMAN FOREIGN MINISTER FRANK-WALTER STEINMEIER AND SAUDI FOREIGN MINISTER ADEL AL-JUBEIR ENTERING CONFERENCE ROOM STEINMEIER AND JUBEIR SEATED REPORTER ASKING QUESTION (SOUNDBITE) (Arabic) SAUDI FOREIGN MINISTER, ADEL AL-JUBEIR, TALKING ABOUT IRAN, SAYING: "It has to withdraw from S
  • Embargoed: 3rd November 2015 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Saudi Arabia
  • Country: Saudi Arabia
  • Topics: General
  • Reuters ID: LVA5SKQ05ZGZ6UH0IPJO5W4D3WTF
  • Aspect Ratio: 16:9
  • Story Text: Saudi Foreign Minister Adel al-Jubeir said on Monday (October 19) that Iran's military role in Syria stopped it from being able to play a role in peacemaking efforts in the conflict there.
    Speaking at a joint news conference with German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier, Jubeir repeated Riyadh's view that Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, who is supported by Iran, has to leave power if peace is to be achieved.
    "(Iran) has to withdraw from Syria and it has to stop supplying weapons to Bashar al-Assad's regime and it has to withdraw the Shi'ite militias that it sent ... and then it can have a role," Jubeir said, adding that Iran was now an "occupier of Arab lands in Syria".
    Saudi Arabia believed Assad must step down as soon as a transitional body was set up in line with the Geneva peace talks of 2012, he said.
    "After the formation of the governing council, Bashar Al-Assad will have to leave. Whether it's a day, whether it's a week, whether it's a month is really up to the Syrian people," Jubeir said.
    The idea that Assad might stay until elections were held and that he could participate in these elections had no prospect, he added.
    Tehran has armed the Syrian government and, by backing Lebanese Hezbollah fighters, helped Assad combat rebels seeking to end his rule in the four-year-old conflict.
    Jubeir's German counterpart Steinmeier said that military intervention by Russia - which launched air strikes in Syria three weeks ago - had not made the search for a solution to the conflict any simpler.
    "But the additional difficulties must not prevent us for searching for a way, even if this has become more difficult than it seemed three or four weeks ago," he said.
    He added that so-called 'deconfliction' talks being held between Moscow and Washington were serving to "at least curb the dangers" of further escalation in Syria.
    The bloodshed in Syria, part of a broader struggle for regional supremacy between Sunni Muslim Saudi Arabia and Shi'ite Iran, has enflamed sectarian divisions across the Middle East and drawn religiously motivated foreign fighters to both sides.
    Moscow's intervention has infuriated Saudi Arabia and other foes of Assad who say the Russian air strikes have been hitting rebel groups opposed to the Syrian leader and not just the Islamic State fighters Moscow says it is targeting.
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