India bats for UN-led resolution of Syria crisis

New Delhi, Aug 14 (IANS) India is set to push for a UN-led solution to the thickening Syrian crisis amid partisan posturing when Prime Minister Manmohan Singh goes to Tehran August-end for the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) summit.

Manmohan Singh heads to Tehran Aug 28 to attend the NAM summit - the first visit by an Indian prime minister to Iran in over a decade since Atal Behari Vajpayee's trip in 2001.

Iran, the principal backer of the beleaguered Bashar al-Assad regime, is set to leverage the NAM summit to push for an inclusive political reconciliation of the Syria crisis amid increasingly strident calls by Western powers and its Arab allies like Saudi Arabia and Qatar for regime change in Damascus.

Amid the stalemate in Syria between the besieged regime and rebel forces, India, informed sources said here Tuesday, is looking to push a UN-led resolution of the crisis that keeps the interests of the Syrian people in the forefront.

"Only the UN can break the logjam. We should give the UN another chance," said the sources here.

In his discussions with Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and at the NAM summit, Manmohan Singh is expected to pitch for the UN-led renewed initiative on Syria.

Last week, India sent a mid-level diplomat in the foreign office to a ministerial conference convened by Iran, that sought to push an "indigenous solution" to the Syrian crisis.

Ahmadinejad had billed the meet an opportunity "to replace military clashes with political, indigenous approaches to settle disputes".

India backs a Syrian-led political reconciliation and is keen to encourage a UN-led viable option that lead to a peaceful resolution of the crisis.

India abstained from the vote in the UN General Assembly on a Saudi-drafted resolution on Syria as it contained a reference to the Arab League's resolution for Assad to step down. Abstention was a careful, calculated decision, said the sources.

India, said the sources, does not want to be seen as a party to any regime change or external intervention and wants the Syria crisis to be resolved by the Syrian people.