{"id":20875,"date":"2015-10-28T09:55:53","date_gmt":"2015-10-28T09:55:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/syria-conflict-iran-to-attend-talks-in-vienna\/"},"modified":"2015-10-28T09:55:27","modified_gmt":"2015-10-28T09:55:27","slug":"syria-conflict-iran-to-attend-talks-in-vienna","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/syria-conflict-iran-to-attend-talks-in-vienna\/","title":{"rendered":"Syria conflict: Iran to attend talks in Vienna"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Mohammad<\/figure>\n

{ {{Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif will attend multilateral talks on finding a political solution to the conflict in Syria in Vienna this week, a government spokeswoman has said.}} }<\/p>\n

It will be the first time Iran – an ally of President Bashar al-Assad – has attended such a summit with the US.<\/p>\n

Representatives of Russia, Saudi Arabia and Turkey will also attend the talks.<\/p>\n

Earlier, the US said an invitation had been extended to Iran – a move Syria’s Western-backed opposition questioned.<\/p>\n

The main round of talks is expected to take place on Friday, but diplomats say some preparatory meetings could happen on Thursday evening.<\/p>\n

“We have reviewed the invitation, and it was decided that the foreign minister would attend the talks,” Iranian foreign ministry spokeswoman Marzieh Afkham said.<\/p>\n

Egypt and Iraq also confirmed they had accepted invitations to the meeting.<\/p>\n

BBC diplomatic correspondent James Robbins says that while the US is certainly not welcoming Iran to the Syria talks, it will now tolerate Tehran’s involvement. <\/p>\n

\"The<\/figure>\n

Iran’s Fars news agency said Mr Zarif had discussed participation in the Vienna talks with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov by phone on Tuesday.<\/p>\n

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov later told reporters that Russia wanted a “widening of the dialogue” on Syria.<\/p>\n

Iran is believed to have spent billions of dollars over the past four years propping up President Assad’s government, providing military advisers and subsidising weapons.<\/p>\n

However, Syria’s political opposition has warned that Iran’s involvement will only complicate the meeting in Vienna.<\/p>\n

Both Iran and Russia – another ally of President Assad – have recently stepped up their military role in the Syrian conflict.<\/p>\n

\"Iran<\/figure>\n

Iran has long acknowledged sending military advisers to Syria, but has denied the presence of any ground forces.<\/p>\n

Despite that, unconfirmed reports earlier this month said that hundreds of Iranian troops had arrived in Syria.<\/p>\n

They were reported to be joining government forces and fighters from the Lebanese Shia Islamist movement, Hezbollah, in assaults on rebel positions in northern and central Syria.<\/p>\n

Russia began its military intervention in Syria at the end of last month, launching air strikes in support of President Assad.<\/p>\n

Russia and Iran have insisted that Mr Assad must be part of any transition government and that the Syrian people must be allowed to decide who governs them.<\/p>\n

The US has indicated it could only tolerate President Assad during a short transition period, after which he should step down.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n

{{Why is there a war in Syria?}}<\/p>\n

Anti-government protests developed into a civil war that, four years on, has ground to a stalemate, with the Assad government, Islamic State, an array of Syrian rebels and Kurdish fighters all holding territory.
\n{{
\nWho is fighting whom?
\n}}<\/p>\n

Government forces concentrated in Damascus and the centre and west of Syria are fighting the jihadists of Islamic State and al-Nusra Front, as well as less numerous so-called “moderate” rebel groups, who are strongest in the north and east. These groups are also battling each other.<\/p>\n

{{What’s the human cost?}}<\/p>\n

More than 250,000 Syrians have been killed and a million injured. Some 11 million others have been forced from their homes, of whom four million have fled abroad – including growing numbers who are making the dangerous journey to Europe.
\n{{
\nHow has the world reacted?}}<\/p>\n

Iran, Russia and Lebanon’s Hezbollah movement are propping up the Alawite-led Assad government, while Turkey, Saudi Arabia and Qatar back the more moderate Sunni-dominated opposition, along with the US, UK and France. Hezbollah and Iran are believed to have troops and officers on the ground, while a Western-led coalition and Russia are carrying out air strikes.<\/p>\n

BBC<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

{ {{Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif will attend multilateral talks on finding a political solution to the conflict in Syria in Vienna this week, a government spokeswoman has said.}} }<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":2000069877,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[101],"byline":[170],"hashtag":[],"class_list":["post-20875","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-internationl","byline-igihe"],"bylines":[{"id":170,"name":"IGIHE","slug":"igihe","description":"","image":{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&f=y&r=g","alt":"Default avatar","title":"Default avatar","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","sizes":[]},"user_id":8}],"contributors":[{"id":170,"name":"IGIHE","slug":"igihe","description":"","image":{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&f=y&r=g","alt":"Default avatar","title":"Default avatar","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","sizes":[]},"user_id":8}],"featured_image":{"id":2000069877,"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/arton20875.jpg","alt":"","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","width":0,"height":0,"sizes":{"thumbnail":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/arton20875.jpg","width":1,"height":1},"medium":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/arton20875.jpg","width":1,"height":1},"medium_large":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/arton20875.jpg","width":1,"height":1},"large":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/arton20875.jpg","width":1,"height":1},"full":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/arton20875.jpg","width":0,"height":0}}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20875","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20875"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20875\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2000069877"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20875"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20875"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20875"},{"taxonomy":"byline","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/byline?post=20875"},{"taxonomy":"hashtag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/hashtag?post=20875"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}