In a startling turnabout in the space of less than twenty-four hours, United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon rescinded an invitation he had extended to Iran to participate in the kickoff of the Syrian peace negotiations this week in Switzerland.
At a hastily arranged press briefing on Sunday, January 19th, the Secretary General announced his invitation to Iran:
"As I have said repeatedly, I believe strongly that Iran needs to be part of the solution to the Syrian crisis.
"I have spoken at length in recent days with Iran’s Foreign Minister, Mr. Javad Zarif. He has assured me that, like all the other countries invited to the opening day discussions in Montreux [Switzerland], Iran understands that the basis of the talks is the full implementation of the 30 June 2012 Geneva Communique, including the Action Plan."
"Foreign Minister Zarif and I agree that the goal of the negotiations is to establish, by mutual consent, a transitional governing body with full executive powers. It was on that basis that Foreign Minister Zarif pledged that Iran would play a positive and constructive role in Montreux."
What a difference a day makes. The United States protested the invitation, claiming that Iran had not met the key condition for attending the Montreux meeting by failing to publicly accept the mandate for the peace conference embodied in the Geneva Communique. The UN ambassadors from the United Kingdom and France agreed with the U.S. position. The Russian UN ambassador said that all relevant parties, including the United States, had been consulted in advance regarding the invitation to Iran. Russia strongly supports Iran’s participation at the Montreux meeting. The Syrian opposition coalition, which had just reluctantly agreed to send representatives to the peace conference, threatened to “withdraw their attendance in Geneva 2 unless Ban Ki-moon retracts Iran’s invitation.”
Then came the coup de grâce. Ban Ki-moon evidently expected Iran to publicly affirm the assurances he said he had received privately that Iran supported the purpose of the Geneva peace talks, which is to enable the Syrian negotiators to work out a settlement establishing a transitional entity with full executive powers as called for in the June 30, 2012 Geneva Communique. Instead, a spokesperson for the Iranian foreign ministry said that Iran would attend the conference on the understanding that it would do so “without any preconditions."
Iran's deputy foreign minister Hosein Amirabdollahian went even further in rejecting any pronouncement of public support for the Geneva Communique as the basis for the upcoming peace talks between the Syrian government and Syrian opposition: “Setting such a condition to accept the Geneva 1 agreement for attending the Geneva 2 meeting is rejected and unacceptable.”
Thus, there was no public expression of support from Iran for the Geneva Communique, which the Secretary General has characterized as the internationally agreed framework for ending the crisis in Syria and was the basis on which the international community is meeting for the kickoff meeting in Montreux on January 22nd to express its solidarity in support of the Syrian negotiators. These representatives from the Syrian government and Syrian opposition are to sit down together in Geneva on January 24th for direct talks aimed at reaching a political settlement, to be facilitated by the Joint Special Representative of the UN and the League of Arab States for Syria, Lakhdar Brahimi.
For hours, the UN Secretary General engaged in consultations and considered his options with regard to how to handle his controversial invitation to Iran to attend the Montreux meeting as part of the multi-nation gathering. Finally, in mid-afternoon on Monday, his spokesperson announced the Secretary General’s official withdrawal of the invitation. Despite Iran's private assurances “that Iran understood and supported the basis and goal of the Conference, including the Geneva Communiqué,” the Secretary General’s spokesperson said, the Iranian public statements were “not at all consistent with that stated commitment.” Consequently, since Iran has not shown its willingness to “join the global consensus behind the Geneva Communiqué,” the Secretary General decided that “the one-day Montreux gathering will proceed without Iran’s participation.”
The Syrian opposition is pleased with this outcome and confirmed its participation in the peace talks. How Iran, the Syrian government which relies on Iran for support, and Syria’s ally Russia will react remains to be seen in this unfolding diplomatic drama.
