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U.S. and Iran Offer Clashing Accounts of the Civil War in Syria
(about 11 hours later)
DAVOS, Switzerland — Describing himself as an advocate of “prudent moderation” as he pursued a diplomatic offensive to remold Iran’s image, President Hassan Rouhani said Thursday that he sought “constructive engagement” with Iran’s neighbors and pledged that his country had no intention of acquiring nuclear weapons.
DAVOS, Switzerland — Secretary of State John Kerry and President Hassan Rouhani of Iran offered clashing accounts on Thursday of the civil war in Syria, and the role that Tehran is playing in the conflict.
His speech, at the annual gathering of the World Economic Forum here, came as international negotiators elsewhere in Switzerland sought to persuade Syrian government representatives and their exiled adversaries to sit down face- to- face at peace talks seeking an end to Syria’s civil war. Iran is a key player in the region’s diplomacy and the principal regional ally of President Bashar al-Assad.
The contrasting assessments illustrated the chasm that still separates the United States and Iran on Middle East issues even as they have agreed on a temporary accord to freeze much of Iran’s nuclear program.
In the speech, Mr. Rouhani referred to recent cooperation with the United States and other powers on his country’s nuclear program as a “major development” and urged American leaders to accept his country’s Islamic revolution as the culmination of a century of struggle for freedom.
In an interview here with the news agency Al Arabiya, Mr. Kerry said that it was time for Iran to match its words about the need for a peaceful solution to the war in Syria with deeds. If Iran wants to play a stabilizing role in Syria, Mr. Kerry suggested, it should stop sending paramilitary forces there and rein in its proxies who are fighting with President Bashar al-Assad’s forces against the rebels.
“I strongly and clearly state that nuclear weapons have no place in our security strategy and Iran has no motivation to move in that direction,” he said, speaking to a packed auditorium that included some Israeli participants and Catherine Ashton, the European Union’s foreign policy chief, who helped negotiate the nuclear breakthrough.
“Iran has I.R.G.C. personnel on the ground in Syria conducting military affairs,” Mr. Kerry said, using the abbreviation for Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. Mr. Kerry also said that Iran was the main supporter of Hezbollah, the Lebanese militia, which he asserted was “the principal difference in the fighting that has taken place on the ground in Syria.”
He also expressed Iran’s commitment to a broader nuclear agreement but, in what was taken as a veiled reference to Israeli suspicions, he cautioned that “a possible impediment may be a lack of serious will by the other party or parties or they might be influenced by others.”
But the Iranian president offered an assessment that differed so radically it was difficult to imagine that he was talking about the same country. Echoing arguments used by Mr. Assad, Mr. Rouhani suggested that terrorism, not power-sharing with the opposition, was the main issue.
“We are ready,” Mr. Rouhani said. “Of course, this is a long and winding and difficult road. However, if we remain serious and keep the will, we can push through.”
“All of us should work to push terrorists out of Syria,” Mr. Rouhani said in an address to the World Economic Forum in this Alpine village. Though he described the insurgents who had taken up arms against the Syrian president as “ruthless killers,” Mr. Rouhani made no mention of the arms or personnel Iran had sent to Syria or of Hezbollah’s role.
The conciliatory tone of Mr. Rouhani’s speech seemed to be designed to pursue an effort to win broad international acceptance for a nation that under his predecessor, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, was viewed by Western powers as dangerous, unpredictable and disruptive.
The dueling accounts pointed to the deeper, compartmentalized nature of American-Iranian relations. Though Mr. Kerry has had extensive negotiations with Iran’s foreign minister, Mohammad Javad Zarif, the Obama administration’s discussions with the Iranians, including its back-channel talks, have focused almost entirely on the nuclear issue.
John Chipman, head of the London-based International Institute for Strategic Studies, said Mr. Rouhani’s speech was in essence “an application to rejoin the international community.”
There was no indication that the tentative efforts to find common ground on the nuclear question had laid the basis for a broader accommodation on regional disputes. If anything, the interim agreement on Iran’s nuclear program called to mind the sort of arms control accords the White House reached with the Kremlin during the chillier days of the Cold War, in which Moscow and Washington sought to limit their nuclear arms even as they waged proxy wars and competed for influence in the third world.
“His buzz-terms were ‘prudent moderation’ and constructive engagement,’ ” said Mr. Chipman, who was in the audience. “He is saying: trust me as a leader.”
The contrasting American and Iranian assessments came a day after the peace talks on Syria opened in Montreux with a defiant speech from Syria’s deputy foreign minister. Mr. Kerry acknowledged in his interview on Thursday that there were no indications that Mr. Assad was prepared to vacate his post. “He’s not ready at this point in time,” Mr. Kerry said.
But Israeli leaders attending the same event in Davos took exception to Mr. Rouhani’s comments, saying they represented a missed opportunity and were designed to deceive.
Mr. Kerry also did not present a clear blueprint for how he hoped to persuade Mr. Assad to change his mind, beyond mobilizing international pressures.
“Rouhani is continuing with the Iranian show of deception,” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in remarks relayed by his office in Jerusalem.
Yet it was Mr. Rouhani who was on the diplomatic offensive. Describing himself as an advocate of “prudent moderation,” Mr. Rouhani said he sought “constructive engagement” with Iran’s neighbors and pledged that his country had no intention of acquiring nuclear weapons, speaking to a packed auditorium that included some Israeli participants and Catherine Ashton, the European Union’s foreign policy chief.
“At a time when Rouhani talks about peace with the countries of the Middle East, he refuses — even today — to recognize the existence of the state of Israel, and his regime daily calls for the destruction of the state of Israel,” Mr. Netanyahu said.
John Chipman, chief executive of the London-based International Institute for Strategic Studies, said Mr. Rouhani’s speech was in essence “an application to rejoin the international community.”
“At a time when Rouhani claims that Iran is not interested in a nuclear project for military purposes, Iran continues to strengthen its centrifuges and heavy water reactor, and to arm itself with intercontinental missiles, the sole purpose of which is for nuclear weapons,” he added.
“His buzz-terms were ‘prudent moderation’ and ‘constructive engagement,’ ” said Mr. Chipman, who was in the audience. “He is saying: Trust me as a leader.”
At a news conference 45 minutes after Mr. Rouhani’s appearance, President Shimon Peres of Israel said Mr. Rouhani should have used his speech to endorse Middle East peace efforts and should have reinforced his words with pledges to halt missile development and arms supplies to Iran’s allies in the region.
Yet Israeli leaders attending Davos took exception to Mr. Rouhani’s comments, saying they represented a missed opportunity and were intended to mislead world opinion. “Rouhani is continuing with the Iranian show of deception,” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in remarks relayed by his office in Jerusalem.
“As far as Israel is concerned, we are ready to make peace with the Iranian people,” Mr. Peres said. “They have never been historically our enemies. We don’t look for any wars. We don’t look for any confrontation.Today was a great occasion but it was unfortunately missed.”
Mr. Rouhani’s conciliatory tone certainly did not represent a convergence with the United States on Syria, the most urgent Middle East crisis.
Mr. Rouhani was elected as Iran’s president last year, offering a friendlier and more pragmatic vision of his country’s relationship with the West. Since then, Iran has reached an interim agreement with world powers on suspending nuclear enrichment in return for an easing of sanctions — a deal that began to take effect on Monday.
Mr. Kerry suggested that Iran might yet play a role in the Syria peace talks if it publicly embraced the mandate for Geneva peace talks, which calls for the establishment of a transitional administration that could run the country if Mr. Assad agreed to yield power.
On Sunday, in what appeared to be a diplomatic success for Tehran, Ban Ki-moon, the United Nations secretary general, invited Iran to attend the Syria talks but withdrew the offer a day later after Iranian officials denied that they had agreed to preconditions for their attendance.
But Mr. Rouhani appeared to show no interest in that possibility. Instead, he again echoed the Assad government’s arguments calling for “free and fair elections” and stating that “no outside power” should seek to determine Syria’s future.
Mr. Rouhani’s appearance at Davos was the first by an Iranian president since Mohammad Khatami spoke here in 2004.
Setting out what seemed to be ambitious goals for his country, whose economy has been battered by years of tightening international sanctions, Mr. Rouhani vowed to “overcome all economic and political impediments” to turning Iran into one of the top 10 economies in the world in the space of a decade.
In response to questions from Klaus Schwab, the head of the World Economic Forum, Mr. Rouhani said Iran sought improved relations with “all the world” and with its neighbors. But he would not say whether that would include Israel, long seen as an archfoe that has in the past threatened to take military action against Iran’s nuclear facilities. Neither did he refer by name to Saudi Arabia, Iran’s main rival for influence in the oil-rich Persian Gulf and the broader region.
While he denied that Iran sought a nuclear weapon, he again insisted on its right to develop nuclear technology for peaceful uses like electricity generation and the manufacture of medical isotopes under supervision by the International Atomic Energy Agency, the United Nations’ nuclear watchdog.
“The Iranian people are not willing to give up their peaceful technology,” he said.
On the Syrian crisis, Mr. Rouhani called the years of strife a “major catastrophe” in which “the people have borne the brunt. Millions of people have been killed or injured or made homeless.”
Echoing the language used by Mr. Assad, he also referred to the insurgents seeking to overthrow the Syrian government as “terrorists” and “ruthless killers.”
“Iran believes that all of us should try to put a stop to the bloodshed,” he said. He was not asked to comment on assertions by the Syrian opposition that Tehran is playing a covert military role in support of Mr. Assad.
“All of us should work to push terrorists out of Syria,” he said, warning those who support such adversaries “that the next stop will be their country for terrorists.” The Syrian opposition is supported by a broad array of Arab and Western countries, although some of those backers have shown alarm at the growing influence among the insurgents of jihadists linked to Al Qaeda.
Mr. Rouhani urged “free and fair elections” and, again echoing Mr. Assad’s arguments, said “no outside power” should seek to determine Syria’s future.
