SYRIA - Iran Not to Attend Peace Talks

We do NOT need a terrorist supporter at these talks.  It is Iran's support of terrorist groups that is making the war worst.

"World powers dispute whether Iran should attend Syrian peace talks" PBS Newshour 1/20/2014

Excerpt

GWEN IFILL (Newshour):  Now the diplomatic struggle over the Syria peace talks.

The back-and-forth over the U.N.'s decision to invite Iran to participate continued all day, with the scheduled start of the talks less than 48 hours away.

In two days' time, world powers will gather at this hotel in Montreux, Switzerland, to try to negotiate an end to Syria's civil war.

Yesterday, in New York, U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon extended an 11th-hour invitation to Iran.

BAN KI-MOON, United Nations Secretary-General:  I believe strongly that Iran needs to be part of the solution to the Syrian crisis.

GWEN IFILL:  Ban initially said Iran accepted the goal of a transitional government in Syria that would remove President Bashar al-Assad from power.  Later, though, Iran insisted it will not accept preconditions for attending.

Hours after that, a spokesman for Ban made this announcement at the U.N.:

MARTIN NESIRKY, UN spokesman:  The secretary-general is deeply disappointed by Iranian public statements today that are not at all consistent with that stated commitment.  He continues to urge Iran to join the global consensus behind the Geneva communique.  Given that it has chosen to remain outside that basic understanding, he has decided that the one-day Montreux gathering will proceed without Iran's participation.