The U.S. State Department has slammed Iran’s behavior in Syria.
“We’ve had a few instances to reiterate our position that we think the Iranian behavior in Syria is destructive,” State Department spokesman Patrick Ventrell told journalists when asked to comment on the start of an international meeting on Syria in Tehran on Thursday.
“It’s just hard for us to imagine that a country putting so much effort into keeping [President Bashar al-] Assad in power, to helping him… stage this repression on the people of Syria - it’s just hard to imagine how they could be a constructive actor in facilitating a political solution to the crisis in Syria,” Ventrell said.
The Syrian conflict has claimed between 14,000 and 20,000 lives since March 2011, according to estimates by various opposition groups and the UN. The West is pushing for Assad’s ouster, while Russia and China are trying to prevent outside interference in the country, saying the Assad regime and the opposition are both to blame for the bloodshed.
International diplomatic efforts have failed to force the conflicting sides to stop the bloodshed and begin talks. Russia and China have three times vetoed Western draft resolutions on Syria fearing the repetition of “the Libyan scenario” in Syria.
UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said earlier in August that Kofi Annan, UN and Arab League special envoy on Syria, is quitting the post of the UN and Arab League envoy to Syria. Annan had decided not to renew his mandate when it expires on August 31.
