Iran should be included in talks on Syria: UN’s Ban

TEHRAN, June 20 (MNA) – United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon has pressed the United States to accept Iran as part of a broader coalition of nations discussing the crisis in Syria, according to Bloomberg. “It is better to have broader participants,” Ban told reporters late on Monday at the Group of 20 summit in Los Cabos, Mexico. Asked specifically about including Syrian ally Iran in negotiations, he said, “yes.” Ban’s comments came hours after U.S. President Barack Obama said he and Russian President Vladimir Putin agreed to work with “all interested parties” to bring an end to the Syrian conflict. Obama didn’t address whether Iran should take part in the talks, as Russia proposed last week. The U.S. and Russian leaders, who met for the first time in almost three years, have clashed on how to tackle the 15-month Syrian crisis that has claimed more than 10,000 lives. While Obama has called on Syrian President Bashar al-Assad to step aside, Russia has blocked UN Security Council resolutions against his government and said that the U.S. and its allies are trying to duplicate the overthrow of Libya’s Muammar Qaddafi.