BAGHDAD: Syria’s foreign minister said yesterday that his government will take part in a peace conference in Geneva, terming it a “good opportunity for a political solution” to the civil war in Syria.
Walid Muallem also praised an Iraqi army operation against Sunni militants near the border with Syria, during a surprise visit to Baghdad that came as Iraqi authorities searched a Syria-bound aircraft.
He said during a news conference in Baghdad that he had told his counterpart Hoshyar Zebari and Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri Al Maliki of the decision to attend the planned Geneva talks in June.
President Bashar Al Assad’s regime had agreed “in principle to participate in the international conference which is supposed to be convened in Geneva,” Muallem said.
“We think... that the international conference represents a good opportunity for a political solution to the crisis in Syria.”
Muallem also took a swipe at countries supporting rebels who are locked in a bloody civil war with Assad’s regime, saying that “the regional countries that conspire against Syria are the same that support terrorism in Iraq.”
