Iran will take part in new Syria consultations, UN says
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The U.N. confirms that Iran will take part in consultations on Syria that begin Monday in Geneva.
The U.N. special envoy on Syria has said these are not a new round of negotiations but a series of individual meetings with "as many parties as possible" to get a sense of whether another round of negotiations is feasible.
Iran's participation is important because it is a key ally of the Syrian government and did not take part in the two rounds of negotiations on Syria that failed.
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Iran has been careful to say it would be interested in attending without preconditions, namely, the insistence by some parties that President Bashar Assad must go.
A U.N. statement says envoy Staffan de Mistura will lead the expected five or six weeks of talks.