Iran ready to help Qatar, Saudi Arabia to revise stance on Syria

TEHRAN, April 22 (MNA) – Iran’s ambassador to Damascus said Tehran is ready to help Saudi Arabia and Qatar make up for past mistakes on their positions on Syria. “We are ready to help them repair their burned bridges,” Mohammad Reza Sheibani told . Sheibani said the Arab League lacks a clear strategy on Syria and they just follow the West. He said the only difference is that the West realized the reality on the ground in Syria sooner than the Arabs. For example, he said, Arabs participated in the “Friends of Syria” conference in Tunisia in late February with the aim of arming opposition groups but the West opposed the idea. He said the Arab bloc was finally forced to accept the plan presented by Iran, Russia and Syria and finally it concluded that dialogue is the only solution to the crisis, and therefore endorsed of the Annan plan to save face. “They thought that they could topple (Beshar) Assad in the blink of an eye but now after testing all options they realize that dialogue is the only solution to the Syria crisis.” Iranian hostages in Syria Sheibani said 13 Iranians are still in the captivity of insurgents opposed to the Syrian government. The ambassador said the insurgents who have held Iranians hostage are led by one command center based in Turkey, however, the captives are on Syrian soil. He added, “According to the latest information that we have of these dears until two weeks ago they were safe but contacting them is very hard and now we are trying to free these dears with the help of regional countries who have influence on the armed groups and are in direct contact with them.”