West was wrong in not inviting Iran to Syria talks: ex-diplomat

TEHRAN — Arab countries and the U.S. prevented Iran from attending the previous rounds of Geneva talks on Syria, the Tehran Times reported.

It was a wrong prediction by the EU and U.S. where they did not pay attention to Iran’s position on Syria, given the Islamic Republic’s experience in resistance as a regional country, said a former Iranian diplomat.

However, a number of regional developments made them realize that they would rather have Iran during the new round of talks, Hamid Reza Asefi told the Shargh newspaper.

One of these was that Bashar Assad is much more powerful than the time of Geneva II Conference on Syria, he said.

On the other hand, Asefi added, the opposition groups in Syria did not gather around in the form of a unified front, but rather engaged in battle among themselves.

These show that the opposition groups are not so promising for Western powers to be counted on and that is why Iran is being invited, he concluded.

M.W