Spokesman: Iran still opposed to US presence in Astana meeting

Iranian Foreign Ministry Spokesman Bahram Qassemi underlined that his country is still opposed to the US representatives' participation in the next round of Syria talks in Kazakhstan's capital city in May.

"Iran's position since day one has been on this basis that the Astana conference should be limited to three countries (Iran, Russia and Turkey)," Qassemi said on Sunday.

He added that increasing the number of countries participating in the Astana meeting can harm the quality of the negotiations.

Asked about Iran's position on Kazakhstan's invitation of the US to Astana talks, Qassemi said Tehran is opposed to the presence of new countries in the meeting.

EA