Iran calls meeting for Syrian regime talks

BEIRUT -- As Syrian forces struggled to drive rebels out of Aleppo, the country's largest city, Iran, the regime's key ally, tried yesterday to start an alternative political process to address the crisis.

Iran gathered an array of nations ranging from strong supporters of Damascus to nations a world away from the Syrian civil war. The one-day forum is unlikely to result in any international consensus, but it shows Iran's resolve to stand by President Bashar Assad as he tries to crush the 17-month-old uprising.

Syrian rebels said they were low on ammunition but managed to put up resistance against a ground offensive in Aleppo, a center of fighting for more than two weeks.

Tehran billed the conference as a way to focus on dialogue, an alternative to Western-led initiatives calling for Assad to give up power.

Iran has said in the past that critics of the Syrian regime fail to take into account violence by the rebels.

"Iran is against the killing of unarmed people and citizens by any side," Iranian Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi said at the gathering. He warned that sending weapons to the opposition will only fuel the crisis, and he accused rebels of using civilians as "human shields."

Last week, the rebels intercepted a bus and seized its 48 Iranian passengers in a Damascus suburb. The rebels claimed the men were military personnel, including members of Iran's powerful Revolutionary Guard on a "reconnaissance mission" to help Assad's crackdown.

Iran said the 48 were pilgrims visiting a Shia shrine. Salehi said Wednesday that some of the pilgrims are retired members of the army and Revolutionary Guard.

The overwhelmingly Sunni Muslim rebels have also seized 11 Lebanese Shia pilgrims who have been held in northern Syria since May.

Salehi said some 30 countries attended the meeting, including Russia and China, as well as Benin, Cuba and Mauritania. The meeting was called at short notice, and most countries were represented at the ambassador level.

In the past, Russia has urged the West to allow Tehran to take part in international discussions on how to settle the Syrian crisis, arguing that the Islamic republic could play an important role. Moscow has been the main protector and ally of Assad's regime, shielding it from UN sanctions over its brutal crackdown on the uprising.