BAGHDAD — Syria is unlikely to see peace in 2013 as the fighting in the strife-torn country edges closer to civil war, Iran’s Ambassador to Baghdad Hassan Danaie-Far told AFP Thursday.



In a grim assessment of nearly two years of conflict in Iraq’s western neighbor, Danaie-Far said he believed that not all rebels fighting President Bashar Al-Assad’s forces can be called “terrorists,” a term broadly used by the Syrian regime for insurgents.



“I believe it is far-fetched,” he said when asked if he thought there could be peace in Syria this year.



“It is unlikely, but we have also noted there were some signals in the past one to two months,” he added of remarks by UN peace envoy Lakhdar Brahimi which he said Iran interpreted as marking the “end of the process of military options.”



Tehran, a key ally of Damascus, has remained steadfast in its backing for Assad’s regime since the Syrian uprising erupted in March 2011.



Speaking through an Iranian embassy Farsi-English translator, Danaie-Far said he believed the conflict, which the United Nations says has already left more than 60,000 people dead, “looks something like” a civil war.



“It is actually a combined form” of conflict, he said.



Specifically asked whether he believed some rebels had legitimate grievances, despite the regime branding them “terrorists,” he said: “There are serious opponents and serious defenders and they are fighting together.”



Danaie-Far said he did not believe that “anybody who objects (to) the Syrian government is a terrorist.”



“They (rebels) have created the conditions where mercenary money and weaponry are injected into Syria.”



The diplomat claimed that 70 percent of rebel-held territory was under the control of the jihadist Al-Nusra Front, which first gained notoriety for its suicide bombings in Syria.



The group has since evolved into a formidable fighting force leading attacks on battlefronts throughout the embattled country.



Its extremist tactics and suspected affiliation to the Al-Qaeda offshoot in Iraq have landed it on the United States’ list of foreign “terrorist” organizations.



On his country’s nuclear program, Ambassador Danaie-Far said the United States has nothing left to pressure Tehran except for war. And if it chooses conflict Iran retains the right to close the Strait of Hormuz, through which a third of the world’s traded oil passes, insisted Danaie-Far.



Ambassador Hassan Danaie-Far insisted in an interview that “What else (US President Barack) Obama can do?” Danaie-Far said through an Iranian embassy translator.



“The only remaining card on the table is war. Is it to their benefit? Is it to the benefit of the world? Is it to the benefit of the region?”

The diplomat said that if it faced a “problem,” Tehran would be within its rights “to react and to defend itself.”



Asked if it could try to close off the strait, Danaie-Far replied: “If there is some movement and action from our enemies, including US, against us, as a part of natural reaction, that may happen.”



“Everybody would be a loser in that case,” he added. — AFP