Iran could join Syria peace talks after US drops longstanding opposition

[Eugene]

Source: The Guardian

The US has reversed longstanding opposition to Iran’s participation in peace talks to end the Syrian civil war, paving the way for a possible diplomatic breakthrough in the four-year conflict.

Officials in Washington insisted the move was a “genuine multilateral invitation” and implied they had succeeded in overcoming Saudi Arabian opposition to Iran attending the talks in Vienna on Friday.

Nearly two years ago, a similar offer for Iran to attend an earlier round of talks in Geneva was hastily rescinded by UN secretary general Ban Ki-moon after fierce opposition from the US, Britain and Syrian opposition groups.

But continued bloodshed and diplomatic stalemate have combined with a worsening refugee crisis and new Russian military intervention to put pressure on the international community to find a fresh political approach to ending the war.

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Read more: http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/oct/27/us-iran-syria-civil-war-peace-talks

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Dan Roberts in Washington
Tuesday 27 October 2015 19.37 GMT

[Comrade Grumpy]

1. You get nowhere in Syria if you try to freeze out Iran.

Two bad Syria had to go through two more years of the meat grinder before we decided to let the Iranians have a voice.