‘Everyone has accepted’ Assad should stay — Rouhani

Iranian president says he is ready to discuss a ‘plan of action’ for Syria after the defeat of Islamic State

By AFP and ToI Staff 27 September 2015, 9:58 pm

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United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon meets with Iranian President Hassan Rouhani at the United Nations in New York on September 26, 2015. (AFP/DOMINICK REUTER)

Iranian President Hassan Rouhani said Sunday he sees a widespread acceptance among major powers that Syrian leader Bashar Assad should stay in place.

“I think today everyone has accepted that President Assad must remain so that we can combat the terrorists,” Rouhani, a key ally of Assad, told CNN.

The West has softened its demands for the departure of Assad, who has spent more than four years battling opposition forces and Islamist extremist, signaling that the president could stay on in an interim role as part of a two-stage transition.

Iran, which along with Russia is allied with Assad in the war, has until now been kept out of UN diplomatic efforts to piece together a political solution for Syria.

Syrian President Bashar Assad speaking to Russian media outlets RT, Rossiyskaya Gazeta, Channel 1, Russia 24, RIA Novosti and NTV channel, September 15, 2015. (Screenshot: RT)

Speaking earlier to National Public Radio, the Iranian leader said that he is ready to discuss a “plan of action” for Syria’s post-war future after the defeat of the Islamic State group, which has captured swathes of the war-torn country.

“That is not a problem for us from right now, to start holding discussions and dialogues so as to determine and reach the conclusion of the next plan of action after the terrorists are driven out that territory,” Rouhani told NPR.

“But we must all act in unison and have a formula that is required to drive out the terrorists, immediately.”

Rouhani is expected to address the crisis in Syria in his speech to the UN General Assembly on Monday, shortly after US President Barack Obama and Russian leader Vladimir Putin take the podium.

Tehran has been providing financial and military support to the Damascus regime as well as military advisers on the ground in Syria, where more than 240,000 people have died and four million people have been driven from their homes since the start of the conflict.

Western powers are seeking to enlist Iran in a new strategy to address the crisis after Russia beefed up its military presence in Syria in a bid to gain the upper hand on the future political transition.

Rouhani said Sunday that the Syrian people must “have the last word and most important word” on the future of the county, in reference to elections that could cap an interim transition.