Iranian President Hassan Rouhani signaled his government’s readiness to broker talks between the regime of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and the rebels fighting against him in a Friday op-ed in The Washington Post.
Rouhani wrote, “I announce my government’s readiness to help facilitate dialogue between the Syrian government and the opposition.”
The news came as Qadri Jamil, Syria’s deputy prime minister, claimed the civil war that has killed more than 100,000 people and displaced millions had reached a stalemate.
“Neither the armed opposition nor the regime is capable of defeating the other side,” Jamil told the Guardian on Thursday. “This zero balance of forces will not change for a while.”
Rouhani is only the latest world leader in recent weeks to make a public appeal via an op-ed, after Russian President Vladimir Putin penned a highly criticized piece for The New York Times.
