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Iranian Parliamentarian SaysAssad Could Win Elections

In an exclusive interview with Mojtaba Mousavi for Al-Monitor, Iranian parliamentarian Ismaeil Kowsari downplayed hopes for a breakthrough in P5+1 nuclear talks with Iran and suggested that Syrian President Bashar al-Assad could win elections in 2014.
EDITORS' NOTE: Reuters and other foreign media are subject to Iranian restrictions on their ability to report, film or take pictures in Tehran. 

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad (R) shakes hands with his Syrian counterpart Bashar al-Assad during an official welcoming ceremony in Tehran October 2, 2010. REUTERS/Morteza Nikoubazl (IRAN - Tags: POLITICS) - RTXSXO5

Ismaeil Kowsari is a member of the National Security Committee in the Iranian Majlis, a former commander of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps and former head of the Security Department of the General Staff of the armed forces.

In an interview with Al-Monitor, Kowsari said he believes the P5+1 group — Britain, China, France, Germany, Russia, and the United States — had responded to Iran’s proposals in Moscow with a “gentle tone,” but, he added, “As the supreme leader said, we didn’t see any positive outcome in the Almaty talks.” Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, in a meeting with members of the Assembly of Experts on March 6 said of the talks held Feb. 26–27 in Kazakhstan, “In this meeting, westerners did not do anything in particular that can be considered a concession. Rather, they merely acknowledged part of the Iranian nation's rights.”

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