11 Jul 2012

Annan urges Iran join Syria crisis talks

5:19 pm on 11 July 2012

United Nations-Arab League peace envoy Kofi Annan said on Tuesday that Iran should be involved in efforts to find a peaceful solution to the Syria crisis.

The United States and its NATO and Gulf Arab allies are opposed to involving Iran, which backs President Bashar al-Assad, Reuters reports.

After talks in Tehran, Mr Annan said Iran has a role to play.

He said Iran had made clear that if the crisis got out of hand and spread to the region, it could lead to consequences that noone could imagine.

Meanwhile, Jordan has opened new camps to try to cope with an increasing number of people fleeing the fighting in Syria.

The BBC reports about 3600 have arrived in the past week, joining 150,000 people already in camps.