ANKARA - Iran rebuffed on Monday a precondition for taking part in Syria peace talks in Geneva this week, saying it could not accept a plan for a Syrian political transition agreed at talks in the Swiss city in 2012, the ISNA news agency reported. 'Setting such a condition to accept the Geneva 1 agreement for attending at the Geneva 2 meeting is rejected and unacceptable,' ISNA quoted deputy Foreign Minister Hosein Amirabdollahian as saying. 'Iran will attend the talks without any precondition based on an invitation by UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon.' Iran is a staunch ally of Syrian President Bashar Assad in his conflict with rebels fighting to overthrow him.
