After Iran deal, can P5+1 tackle Syria civil war?
Major international parties continue to fumble for a solution to the Syria crisis as the plot thickens, and Russian airstrikes join the fray.
NEW YORK — Even as Russia’s entry this week into an air campaign in Syria cast a shadow over diplomatic proceedings at the 70th anniversary of the United Nations General Assembly, some global players — boosted by the rare diplomatic success of the Iran nuclear deal reached in July — are looking to the international group that negotiated it as a possible format to ramp up diplomacy to try to find a way out of the Syrian civil war.
The possibility of using the P5+1 format or a variation to tackle the Syrian crisis and other regional issues was discussed at a meeting of the P5+1 — the permanent five members of the UN Security Council plus Germany — and Iran foreign ministers in New York on Sept. 29, European Union foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini told journalists.
“We have had some discussion on Syria … especially on the fact that we managed to achieve something … so important for the world through dialogue and diplomacy in this format,” Mogherini told journalists at the UN in New York following the P5+1 Iran ministerial meeting.
“This could be also a useful format for other things,” Mogherini said. “And obviously we will explore [this more] in the next days.”
