Tehran rejects compromise over Assad’s presidency

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region—Iran’s foreign ministry says that it has not compromised over Syria and Bashar Assad’s presidency in Vienna or other meetings with the Western powers.

“We have shown no compromise in these talks,” Iran’s deputy foreign minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian told his country’s state TV Saturday.

Amir-Abdollahian said that Tehran attends all Syria talks to find a solution for that country’s crisis.

“In the last five years there have been meetings with various countries about the situation in Syria but because Iran was not present in those meetings no solution was ever found,” he said.

The Iranian foreign ministry official rejected some media reports that Tehran had agreed to Assad stepping down within six months as part of a transition period.

“In this meeting Iran did not allow such a thing because other countries should not even mention what is essentially the right of the Syrian people themselves to decide,” said Amir-Abdollahian.

During a meeting of 17 countries in Vienna over the weekend Reuters news agency reported that Iran had agreed to a six-month transition period that would see an end to Assad’s presidency.

“In a rare hint of diplomatic progress, Iran signaled it would back a six-month political transition period in Syria followed by elections to decide Assad's fate, although his foes rejected the proposal as a trick to keep Assad in power.” Reuters reported Saturday.

In the Vienna talks which was attended by Assad’s main backer Iran, all countries including the European Union and the United Nations called for an immediate truce to the civil war across Syria.

Iran’s Amir-Abdollahian said in the TV interview that Tehran insisted in the Vienna talks that speaking of “people’s positions would not serve anyone”, in a reference to Assad’s presidency.