Syrians should elect president in 2014 vote, says Iranian FM

TEHRAN, July 11 (MNA) - Iranian Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi said that the Syrian people should be left to choose their president in the election due in 2014 and until then countries should refrain from aggravating the situation by interfering in the Arab country’s internal affairs. “No ruler is an eternal ruler, so in the case of Mr. Bashar al-Assad, by 2014 there are presidential elections in which we will have to let the events take their normal course,” Salehi said in an interview with Reuters in Abu Dhabi, where he met senior UAE officials during a surprise visit. “Now there are a lot of weapons being smuggled into Syria. Many people from different countries are pouring into Syria and raising arms against the government. This aggravates the situation,” Salehi said. He added, “My message to all countries that can play a role in this regard is to be very prudent and wise not to worsen the situation.” Speaking as Kofi Annan, the UN-Arab League joint special envoy on Syria, headed to Tehran after a meeting with Assad in Damascus on Monday, Salehi said that Iran still supported the envoy’s six-point peace plan. He added that Annan should be given “enough chance to be able to push forward” his proposal. Annan has put forward a plan for ending the crisis in Syria, which calls for a UN-supervised ceasefire by all parties, the withdrawal of soldiers and heavy weapons from cities, and the delivery of humanitarian assistance. Salehi also said, “We also support this idea whereby the government and the opposition sit down together to find a way out.” Annan, during a joint press conference with Salehi in Tehran on Tuesday, said, “My presence here proves that I believe Iran can play a positive role and should therefore be a part of the solution (to) the Syrian crisis.” Asked to provide details about the agreement on the “new approach” reached during his meeting with Assad, the former United Nations secretary general said Assad had proposed “building an approach from the ground up in some of the districts where we have extreme violence to try and contain the violence in those districts, and, step by step, build up and end the violence across the country.” “The details (have) to be worked out with the opposition. We have to discuss this with them. That’s why I can’t go into details, but it relates to end(ing) the violence,” he noted.