SALON

Monday, Jun 25, 2012 10:15 PM UTC

AP sources: UN envoy wants Iran at Syria meeting

By

Topics: From the Wires,

WASHINGTON (AP) — United Nations envoy Kofi Annan has proposed inviting Iran to a multinational meeting to discuss a political transition in Syria this week, but is leaving it up to the U.S. and Russia to decide whether Iran can participate, U.S. officials said Monday.

Annan wants an “understanding” between Washington and Moscow on Iran, other potential guests and the agenda, officials said, before he issues formal invitations to the meeting of an “Action Group on Syria” that he wants to convene in Geneva on Saturday.

The officials spoke on condition of anonymity due to the sensitive nature of the diplomacy.

The U.S. is adamantly opposed to Iran taking part, while Russia supports its inclusion. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton has said Iran’s participation would be a “red line” for the United States because it has been overt in its support of Syrian President Bashar Assad’s brutal crackdown on the opposition.

Annan has previously said that Iran “should be part of the solution” to the Syria crisis but has been coy about whether he believes Iran’s presence at the meeting is vital.

Annan has now said that Iran would be part of an “optimum” roster for the meeting, according to the officials, who said the U.S. has not changed its position on the matter. However, the officials stressed that Annan also believed that a U.S.-Russia understanding is essential.

Clinton and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov have discussed the matter and are due to meet again in person in St. Petersburg, Russia on Friday, but the officials said Annan wants an answer from the two countries by late Tuesday.

In addition to Iran, the officials said Annan has proposed inviting the foreign ministers of the five permanent members of the U.N. Security Council — Britain, China, France, Russia and the U.S. — along with Iraq, Kuwait, Qatar, Turkey and Saudi Arabia.

Annan has also suggested that U.N. chief Ban Ki-Moon, the Arab League secretary general and EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton be invited.

It was not clear on Monday what the final invitation list would look like or whether the planned conference would proceed as planned on June 30.

More Matthew Lee.

Next Article

Related Stories

More Related Stories

Featured Slide Shows

The week in 10 pics

close X
  • Share on Twitter
  • Share on Facebook
  • Thumbnails
  • Fullscreen
  • 1 of 11
  • Lisa Montgomery embraces her nephew Thursday after a tornado tore apart her home in Cleburne, Texas. The twister killed six people and destroyed entire swaths of the North Texas town.
    Credit: AP/LM Otero

  • Jack McMahon, the defense attorney for abortion doctor Kermit Gosnell, speaks outside the Criminal Justice Center in Philadelphia Tuesday. His client was convicted of killing three babies in his clinic, and will serve multiple life sentences.
    Credit: AP/Matt Rourke

  • A photo taken Monday captures Vice President Joe Biden's response to a Milwaukee second-grader's innovative proposal to end America's epidemic of gun violence. This guy!
    Credit: AP/Jenny Aicher

  • Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., flanked by a grouper-eyed Michele Bachmann, addresses the IRS' admission that it targeted Tea Party groups in advance of the 2012 election. In an op-ed for CNN Thursday, the Kentucky senator slammed the president for his faux outrage.
    Credit: AP/Molly Riley

  • Ousted IRS chief Steven Miller is sworn in on Capitol Hill Friday. Miller testified before the House Ways and Means Committee on the extra scrutiny the agency gave conservative groups applying for tax-exempt status.
    Credit: AP/J. Scott Applewhite

  • Attorney General Eric Holder pauses as he testifies on Capitol Hill before the House Judiciary Committee Wednesday. Holder is under fire, among other things, for the Justice Department's gathering of phone records at the Associated Press.
    Credit: AP/Carolyn Kaster

  • O.J. Simpson sits during an evidentiary hearing at Clark County District Court in Las Vegas, Nev., Thursday. Simpson, who is currently serving a nine-to-33-year sentence in state prison for armed robbery and kidnapping, is using a writ of habeas corpus to seek a new trial.
    Credit: AP/Las Vegas Review-Journal/Jeff Scheid

  • Major Tom to ground control: On Sunday astronaut Chris Hadfield recorded the first music video from space, a cover of David Bowie's "Space Oddity."
    Credit: AP/NASA/Chris Hadfield

  • When it rains it pours. President Barack Obama speaks during a news conference Thursday with Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, inexplicably inspiring an #umbrellagate Twitter meme.
    Credit: AP/Jacquelyn Martin

  • A smoke plume rises high above a road block at the intersection of County A and Ross Road east of Solon Springs, Wis., Tuesday. No injuries were reported, but the the wildfire caused evacuations across northwestern Wisconsin.
    Credit: AP/The Duluth News-Tribune/Clint Austin

  • Recent Slide Shows

  • Share on Twitter
  • Share on Facebook
  • Thumbnails
  • Fullscreen
  • 1 of 11

Related Videos

Comments are not enabled for this story.

follow salon

Most Read

Popular on Reddit

links from salon.com

vote
FBI reportedly joins Bachmann campaign finance probe
239 points240 points | 15 comments
vote
Paul Krugman’s right: Austerity kills. "In an economy where we’re all in the same boat, one person’s spending is another person’s income. So when the government cuts spending, it reduces people’s income, leading to less business, more unemployment, and a vicious spiral of slowing down the economy."
234 points235 points | 201 comments
vote
Jon Karl makes things worse: He regrets “inaccurate” Benghazi email but says his story based on it “still entirely stands.” Really. ABC News?
209 points210 points | 31 comments
vote
“Jodorowsky’s Dune”: The sci-fi classic that never was.
80 points81 points | 16 comments
vote
Austerity Kills: Brian McArdle, a 57-year-old man who had had two strokes and could barely walk, was found "fit for work" by a government subcontractor, and had his benefits stopped. He died the next day.
63 points64 points | 3 comments

From Around the Web

Presented by Scribol
listener_new_rect The Listener: So long, Sookie Stackhouse

Recommendations