MOSCOW, Jan 16 (Reuters) - Iran wants to take part in next week's international peace conference on Syria but will not attend if conditions are set for its participation, Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said on Thursday.
The United States says Iranian delegates should be at the conference in Montreux, Switzerland, only if they are willing to accept an agreement reached at a June 2012 peace conference in Geneva calling for a transitional government body to be established in Damascus "by mutual consent".
Washington interprets that language as requiring President Bashar al-Assad's departure from power but Russia and Iran reject this interpretation.
"If the Islamic Republic of Iran is invited like all other participants in the conference, it will take part in this event," Zarif told a news conference after talks with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov.
He added: "We do not accept any pre-conditions for our country's participation."
Lavrov urged U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon to invite Iran and Saudi Arabia to the conference starting an Jan. 22, saying the participation of regional powers would help find a political solution to the nearly three-year-old conflict. (Reporting by Gabriela Baczynska, Writing by Timothy Heritage, Editing by Elizabeth Piper)
Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
