Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said Monday that the U.S. has been invited to the Syrian peace talks that are expected to be held from Feb. 15 to Feb. 16. Iran has previously expressed strong objections regarding the U.S.'s presence in the talks.
Speaking to Russian NTV television, Lavrov reiterated that the U.S. attended the previous talks in the Kazakh capital as an observer and announced that Washington is invited to the upcoming talks.
He also underscored that Iran's removal from the anti-Daesh coalition would not be a pragmatic move, since the country has "played an important role" in the Syrian peace process. Lavrov also said that although relations between Washington and Tehran are more strained now than they were during Obama's term, it is better to stay involved.
In January, several Iranian officials said they were vehemently opposed to the U.S. joining the Syrian peace talks in Astana, which were held on Jan. 23-24. Iran's statement went against the position of Russia and Turkey, the other two organizers of the talks, who both said before that Donald Trump's new U.S. administration should be represented at the negotiations.
Relations between the U.S. and Iran were first strained more than 30 years ago following the Iranian revolution in 1979, but vastly improved during the Obama administration and under the deal signed in July 2015 when world powers agreed to lift international sanctions on Iran in exchange for curbs on the country's nuclear program. However, U.S. President Donald Trump's frequent denunciation and criticism of the nuclear deal will likely cause hostility between the two countries. U.S. Defense Secretary James Mattis called Iran "the world's biggest state sponsor of terrorism." The Trump administration also announced fresh sanctions following Tehran's missile test in early February.
Turkey, Iran and Russia gathered in the Kazakh capital to attend the peace talks between the Syrian opposition and the Bashar Assad regime.
In the talks, the three countries agreed on a joint mechanism, designed to monitor any cease-fire violations, in an attempt to curb the bloodshed in Syria. Russian Foreign Minister Lavrov officially announced the establishment of the joint mechanism on Feb. 1.
