Upon his arrival back home from the Davos World Economic Forum (WEF) in Switzerland on Friday, President Rouhani said that the Syrian issue will not be resolved in such conferences (the Geneva II talks).
“I told some European leaders that in case of the Syrian issue the first step is making a collective decision to encounter the terrorism, and to deport the terrorists from Syria,” stressed the Iranian president.
Rouhani reiterated that the second point is that everyone should decide to assist the Syrian people who are entangled with many problems today, both those who are inside Syria and the Syrian refugees, so that they would manage to achieve better living conditions.
The president said that the point is that everyone’s efforts should be aimed at providing an appropriate ground for negotiations between the Syrian opponents and the Syrian government so that they would manage to make decisions about the future of Syria.
“If anyone thinks he can make decisions (about the Syrian nation) outside Syria, he is making a mistake. It is the Syrian nation that must decide about its own future. Appropriate conditions for holding a free and fair election in the future need to be provided,” he added.
Iranian officials have repeatedly underlined that Tehran is in favor of negotiations between the Syrian government and opposition groups to create stability in the Middle-Eastern country.
In November 2012, Iran hosted a meeting between the representatives of the Syrian government and opposition to encourage them to start talks to find a political solution to their problems. The National Dialogue Conference kicked off work in Tehran mid-November with the motto of 'No to Violence, Yes to Democracy".
The meeting brought together almost 200 representatives of various Syrian ethnicities, political groups, minorities, the opposition, and state officials.
Syria has been experiencing unrest since March 2011 with organized attacks by well-armed terrorists and militants against the Syrian army and civilians across the country.
Tens of Thousands of people have been killed since terrorist and armed groups turned protest rallies into armed clashes.
The government blames outlaws, saboteurs, and armed terrorist groups for the deaths, stressing that the unrest is being orchestrated from abroad.