Iran to participate in Vienna-II ‘having its red-lines’

TEHRAN, Nov. 08 (MNA) – The head of Expediency Council’s Strategic Research Center has said Iran will uphold its red-lines in Vienna-II Syrian talks. Iran’s state TV broadcaster IRIB quoted Ali Akbar Velayati talking to reporters on Saturday about Iran’s participation in Vienna-II round of Syrian talks. Velayati reiterated Iran’s highly ‘principled’ position about Syrian crisis, and asserted that Iran’s participation in Vienna-II would not constitute Iran’s concessions about Syria; “our support for Syria is motivated by a host of factors: terrorists and extremists, which have fueled the fire of war in Islamic world; they have killed thousands of people with support coming from the US, Zionists, and the reactionary regimes of the Persian Gulf; we spare no option in helping situation in Syria, including political support,” he told reporters. “In Geneva-I and II, the organizers did not welcome participation of Iran, and if they did, they set preconditons which we declined; now after 5 years of resistance, they came to conclusion that without Iran, a political solution would not be devised for Syria, and Syrian government and army has the upper hand in the field,” Velayati emphasized. “No player has the right to interfere in Syrian internal affairs other than its people, and in talks about Syria, Syrian parties to the talks are critical in fashioning a solution,” he added. Senior advisor to the Leader of the Islamic Republic reiterated Iran’s policy that any plan setting aside Syrian government despite its successful battle in defending the rights of its people, from political process, will be unacceptable by Iranian standards. Velayati justified Iran’s support for Syria which was laid as a question by a reporter; “Syria has been a close ally to Iran since the Revolution and it plays a great role in frontlines of the resistance; given that the grand policy of Iran is to support resistance, we should support Syria and Palestinian movements to secure the resistance. The Zionists have a grand plan to the region as from ‘Nile to Euphrates,’ which would satiate their lust for territorial expansion; we detect the threat as genuine threat to our borders,” he emphasized. Velayati said that a product of these factors determined Iran’s participation in Syria as he described the ‘golden ring’ in the chain of resistance against the Zionists. On Russia role, Velayati said that Russia played a complementary role for Iran, Hezbollah, and Iraq in Syria as the 4+1 coalition’s air support, which he believed had broken a military stalemate in Syria, thus helping a break also in political deadlock as well. “About Iraq, Russia came to Iraq by the consent of the government of the country; Russian constructive role in breaking military stalemate was also admitted by current Special Representative of the Secretary-General to Iraq, Nikolay Mladenov,” Velayati emphasized. "Iran has never been such strong during four centuries of its history; the Islamic Republic of Iran has the upper hand in the region and no country would provide parallels to Iran in terms of political-cultural scope of influence in the region,” he concluded.