Annan Seeks Iran Backing to Solve Syria Crisis

Iran Pushes for Free Syrian Election by 2014

With Western nations mostly looking for ways to insinuate themselves into the growing Syrian Civil War, UN special envoy for Syria Kofi Annan is pushing for Iran to help him come up with some sort of peace plan.

Annan has been trying to get Iran involved for awhile, with the US and other NATO members angrily condemning any efforts to recruit Iran into meetings to negotiate on general principle.

But Iran seems to be approaching the matter with more seriousness than we’ve seen out of a lot of countries, and said that while they support Assad they want free elections in Syria with an eye toward replacing him “by 2014.”

So far there’s been no reaction either from the Assad regime or from the rebels, but neither side seems particularly open to a negotiated settlement, and letting the people decide is likely an alien concept to both blocs, which would prefer to impose their own position militarily and then call that the “will of the people.”

Author: Jason Ditz

Jason Ditz is Senior Editor for Antiwar.com. He has 20 years of experience in foreign policy research and his work has appeared in The American Conservative, Responsible Statecraft, Forbes, Toronto Star, Minneapolis Star-Tribune, Providence Journal, Washington Times, and the Detroit Free Press.