WASHINGTON: Ali Al-Moussawi, Media Adviser to Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri Al-Maliki, told Al-Monitor that Iraq can play a critical role in Syria Because “Iraq is the bridge between the Western countries and the United States, those countries that support the resistance in Syria, and with Iran as the second party. This is mainly because Iraq is the only party that is really neutral, they don’t interfere in the conflict in Syria.”

Moussawi, who is accompanying Maliki and an Iraqi delegation for official meetings in Washington this week, including on Friday with US President Barack Obama, said that there should be no preconditions on Iran or any other party that can place a useful role in the proposed Geneva II conference on Syria.

“If we want to solve the problem, we have to go and look for all the participants who can really participate to solve this problem,” said Moussawi. “And Iran, absolutely, is one of those. Otherwise we can exclude Iran and Saudi Arabia and Turkey and Iraq, but then could you solve the problem without the main participants?”

“All of the parties who go to the conference should have to follow what the conference says.  If they don’t, they have to pay a price for this,” he added. “The international community must make sure they pay for their promise.”