Iran's leader says Syria's president must remain in power

Iran's president said Sept. 27 that Syrian leader Bashar Assad must remain in power to fight extremist groups like the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) group and must not be weakened, putting him at odds with the United States and key nations who insist Assad must go in order to achieve peace.

Hassan Rouhani told a meeting with scholars and think tank experts that Iran will cooperate with any country that puts fighting and defeating "terrorism" as its top priority - but he said it cannot work with any government that makes a change in Syria's regime its top priority.
     
He said the Syrian government does need reform. But he warned that if getting rid of Assad is the top goal, as soon as that happens "the terrorists will enter Damascus immediately" as well as other cities controlled by the government, and all will fall to Daesh, an Arabic acronym for the ISIL extremist group.
     
Rouhani's comments run counter to the roadmap to peace in Syria adopted by key nations in Geneva in June 2012. It calls for the formation of a transitional government with full executive powers "on the basis of mutual consent," leading to elections, and would require Assad to relinquish power at some unspecified point.
     
The Iranian president's remarks came on the eve of the annual meeting of world leaders at the United Nations, where frustration is growing at the failure to launch talks to end the nearly five-year-old Syrian war. They also follow a surprise Russian military buildup in Syria, a longtime ally, to help Assad's government combat the ISIL, a move that has raised serious concerns in Washington. And they came on the heels of France's announcement earlier Sunday that it had carried out airstrikes in Syria for the first time,...