Laurent Fabius will host Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry at a dinner on Monday to discuss how to nudge Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and the Syrian opposition into the talks in Geneva.
Speaking aboard a French aircraft en route to Abu Dhabi in the United Arab Emirates, Fabius said there was no “magic wand” to get warring parties to the negotiating table even though it appeared Assad’s government had agreed to attend.
Russia has said Iran must be included in the peace conference, which was jointly proposed by Moscow and Washington and could convene in the next few weeks.
But Fabius said Iran’s presence in Syria through its officers who were “directing operations” and through its Hezbollah proxy demonstrated that it had no place at the negotiating table.
“Yes the Russians want Iran to take part in Geneva, but we’re opposed because Iran is not after a political solution and on the contrary has thrown itself directly into that battle.”