Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on Tuesday warned that hostilities in Syria could engulf the region and accused some Syrians of trying to use their country's conflict to settle scores with Tehran. In comments to Al Jazeera television, Ahmadinejad said that a national dialogue and new elections - rather than war - were the only way to solve the Syrian crisis, saying the Syrian people should choose their own path.
"There is another way to find a solution, it is national, mutual understanding in order for there to be elections in the future," he said. The interview was translated from Persian into Arabic by Al Jazeera. He made similar remarks at a news conference in Tehran. "We don't say what they should do. We help them sit down and reach a mutual understanding ... We don't say who should go and who should stay, this would be interfering in countries' affairs. But we say it is people's right to choose," he told the news conference. Every world power involved in the Syrian crisis "had (made) its own mistakes," he said, warning that the Syrian conflict would spread to other countries in the region if it was left unsolved.
"Tomorrow, the atmosphere in Jordan may be like what Syria is experiencing. Thus, we must search for a practical and good solution for all the people's of the area, otherwise catastrophes will fall upon us all." Ahmadinejad said he feared that calls for military intervention in Syria were growing. "I have opposed war, but those who want things to be settled through dialogue are a minority and perhaps the majority are in favour of going ahead in the context of war," he said.
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