A United Nations invitation to Iran to attend the Syria peace talks threatened to unravel the diplomatic meeting on Monday less than 48 hours before its planned start, with the Syrian political opposition and Saudi Arabia angrily objecting to Iranian participation.
Iran embraced the invitation, extended on Sunday by Ban Ki-moon, the United Nations secretary general. Ban's move appeared to surprise the United States, a major sponsor of the meeting which was to commence on Wednesday in Montreux, Switzerland.
The Americans had been saying Iran could not attend unless it publicly accepted all conditions for participating. But Iran said Monday it rejected the imposition of any preconditions, seeming to contradict a statement by Ban that he had been privately assured by Iranian officials that they welcomed the ground rules for the conference: to establish "by mutual consent" a transitional body to govern Syria.
For his part, President Bashar al-Assad of Syria renewed his rebuttal of those terms for the gathering, saying he would not share power with his adversaries and would most likely stand for a new term as Syria's leader in June.
In the region's tangles of hostility, the invitation to Iran drew immediate objections by both the exiled political opposition to Assad and from Saudi Arabia, which is a key backer of the insurgency and the arch rival of Iran, Assad's main regional sponsor.
Ban said on Sunday that Iranian officials had pledged to play "a positive and constructive role," implying that Tehran had accepted that the negotiations were posited on the idea of a new political order in Syria.
On Monday, however, the Iranian state news media quoted a spokeswoman for the Foreign Ministry in Tehran as saying, "We have always rejected any precondition for attending the Geneva II meeting on Syria."
"Based on the official invitation that we have received, Iran will attend the Geneva II without any preconditions," she said, according to Reuters, using the diplomatic shorthand for the long-stalled negotiations.
At the same time, in an interview with Agence France-Presse, Assad rejected the idea of relinquishing or sharing power, contradicting the notion of creating a transitional government.
Assad said in the interview that the talks in Switzerland should focus on what he called "the war against terrorism" in his country. He described the idea of sharing power with figures from the exiled opposition as "totally unrealistic," and said there was a "significant" likelihood that he would stand for a new term as president in June.
While he has made such remarks in the past, the timing of his latest comments seemed to underscore the complexities facing negotiators in Switzerland, despite months of preliminary negotiations to bring the combatants to the table.
Within hours of Ban's invitation to Iran, Syria's political opposition said it would not attend unless the gesture was rescinded.
"The Syrian coalition announces that they will withdraw their attendance in Geneva II unless Ban Ki-moon retracts Iran's invitation," a Twitter message said, quoting Louay Safi, a coalition spokesman. News reports on Monday said the opposition had hardened its stance, giving a deadline of 1900 G.M.T., or 2 p.m. Eastern time, for the invitation to be withdrawn.
The ultimatum came just a day after the opposition coalition, facing a boycott by a third of its members, voted to send a delegation to the peace talks. The opposition has been under intense international pressure, including from the United States government, to participate.
On Monday, Saudi Arabia - a key backer of the insurgents seeking Mr. Assad's ouster - challenged Iran's right to attend the gathering, news reports said, accusing it of playing a covert military role in the almost three-year-old conflict.
American officials said they had been in regular contact with the United Nations over the requirements Iran would need to meet to be invited, but they appeared to have been caught off guard by Mr. Ban's announcement. They pointed out that Iran had not publicly accepted the formal mandate for the conference, which was agreed upon in Geneva in 2012 and is known as the Geneva communique.
"If Iran does not fully and publicly accept the Geneva communique, the invitation must be rescinded," Jen Psaki, a State Department spokeswoman, said in a statement.
Officials in Washington emphasized that Iran had made no such public statement at the time of Mr. Ban's news conference.
If Iran had accepted the Geneva terms, it would be a sharp turnaround, since it has long insisted that it will participate in talks only if there are no preconditions. Still, such a shift would not necessarily mean Tehran had accepted that President Assad must leave office.
Some 30 countries have been invited to Montreux for what may be a largely ceremonial opening day of the peace talks. Two days later, Syria's government and opposition delegations will move to Geneva to continue the deliberations, mediated by a United Nations special envoy, Lakhdar Brahimi.
Diplomats and Middle East analysts say that if there are any breakthroughs, they will take place in Geneva. The negotiations are not expected to yield major results, except perhaps to open up certain parts of Syria to the delivery of humanitarian aid.
Iran's participation has been a subject of intense diplomatic wrangling for several weeks. Mr. Ban and Mr. Brahimi have insisted that Iran, given its considerable influence over the Assad government, should be part of the negotiations. So has the Syrian government's other major ally, Russia.
The United States has long been wary of Iran's intentions. Tehran has been one of the Assad government's staunchest political and military supporters, sending arms to Damascus and encouraging Hezbollah, the Lebanese Shiite militia, to join the fight on the side of Mr. Assad.
As recently as last Monday, Secretary of State John Kerry complained that Iran was, effectively, a belligerent in the conflict.
"Iran is currently a major actor with respect to adverse consequences in Syria," Mr. Kerry said. "No other nation has its people on the ground fighting in the way that they are."
On Sunday, Ms. Psaki added in her statement, "We also remain deeply concerned about Iran's contributions to the Assad regime's brutal campaign against its own people, which has contributed to the growth of extremism and instability in the region."
Iran's inclusion has the potential to turn the Syria peace talks into a platform for intensifying Middle East conflicts. Also represented will be Saudi Arabia, Iran's chief rival.
Andrew J. Tabler, an expert on Syria at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, said Iran's presence "seems to widen the circle of regional involvement." But he also noted that Iran and the United States could be expected to hold diametrically opposed views as to whether Mr. Assad must give up power.
"Given that Iranian forces and their Shia militias are deployed on the ground backing up Assad, it means another Assad backer will be present at this meeting," Mr. Tabler said.
Mr. Ban said Sunday that he had spoken extensively with Iran's foreign minister, Mohammad Javad Zarif.
"He has assured me that, like all the other countries invited to the opening-day discussions in Montreux, Iran understands that the basis of the talks is the full implementation of the 30 June, 2012, Geneva communique," Mr. Ban said.
"Foreign Minister Zarif and I agreed that the goal of the negotiations is to establish by mutual consent a transitional governing body with full executive powers," he added. "It was on that basis that Foreign Minister Zarif pledged that Iran would play a positive and constructive role in Montreux."
©2014 The New York Times News Service
