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“Is the U.S. forced to include Iran in the process?” Kirby was asked at his daily briefing, one day before widely anticipated talks in Vienna to which Iran has been invited for the first time. “This isn’t about being forced either to include or exclude anybody,” he replied. “If you’re trying to imply that Russia’s military activities in Syria sort of drove us to this end, I would disabuse you of that notion right off the bat.” Kirby said that Secretary of State John Kerry believes “now is the right time to bring Iran to the table” due to “a confluence of events, a confluence of progress made.”
However a senior State Department official told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee earlier in the day that the military campaign launched by Moscow a month ago had played a key part in the decision to invite the Iranians to the talks. State Department counselor Thomas Shannon, nominated to be undersecretary of state for political affairs, said the Russian airstrikes and presence of Iranian special forces fighting in Syria had “created a different kind of dynamic.” “The Russian and Iranian presence or support for [President Bashar] Assad is nothing new, but the Russian military presence and airstrikes is something new; the presence of Iranian troops and special forces is something new, and worrisome,” he said. “And for this reason, the secretary thought it was time to bring everybody together and effectively call their [the Iranians’] bluff” – to see whether their stated commitment to fight ISIS and terrorism was “meaningful,” Shannon said.
The U.S. has long viewed Iran as part of the problem in Syria, rather than part of the solution to the deadly conflict. Tehran has provided Assad with financial, military and moral support, and its Lebanese Shi’ite proxy Hezbollah has also been deeply involved in the fighting on the side of the regime. For the past three years the administration has refused to countenance Iran taking part in the stop-start diplomatic process aimed at resolving the Syrian crisis. It stated repeatedly that the condition for Iranian participation would be its endorsement of the “Geneva communique” – a 2012 document calling for the establishment of a transitional governing body for Syria on the basis of “mutual consent” between regime and opposition representatives. Iran, leery of signing up to anything that anticipates the departure of Assad, its closest regional ally, refused to agree to what it called “preconditions.” So firm was the administration on that point, that when U.N. secretary-general Ban Ki-moon invited Iran to a round of the talks in Geneva in early 2014, the State Department said he must withdraw the invitation unless Iran relented.
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If Hezbollah wants to be in Syria ok
Fuck with Syria....
but
Do not mess with Israel if you know what is good for ya' Hezbollah.
Do not mess with Israel if you know what is good for ya' Hezbollah.
Last time Israel invaded Lebanon Hezbollah taught the IDF a lesson.
