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Iran chides criticism of Syria elections plan

Iran has expressed concern over the UN election plan which would bar President Bashar Al-Assad from running, citing that the plan should be neutral and not be influenced by countries who want to keep Syria unstable.
Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif addresses a news conference following nuclear negotiations with European Union's foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton, who is leading talks with Iran on behalf of the six world powers, at the United Nations in Geneva October 16, 2013. Iran called two days of nuclear talks with six world powers, United States, Russia, France, Britain, Germany and China, that ended on Wednesday "fruitful" and said it hoped for a new phase in relations. He said two sides had for t

The Secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council, meeting with UN Syria envoy Lakhdar Brahimi, criticized international objections to Syria's Bashar al-Assad running in new elections, and suggested that the UN role in Syria is less than neutral.

Ali Shamkhani, in a two-hour meeting with Brahimi in Tehran Sunday, “expressed strong worry” that the UN was being influenced by the “will of certain countries that are opposed to the restoration of stability in Syria,” the Islamic Republic News Agency reported. “The SNSC secretary said he was surprised that some countries are worried lest democracy would prevail and the peopleˈs choice would be respected in Syria.”

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