Velayati's Office Rejects Statements Of UN Chief's Spokesman

Tehran, Sept 5, IRNA – The Office of the international affairs advisor to the Supreme Leader of Islamic Revolution on Tuesday rejected published statements of the spokesman for the UN Chief Ban Ki-moon on his meeting with the Supreme Leader of Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyed Ali Khamenei. In a statement, issued in reaction to BBC report quoting Ban Ki-Moon's spokesman, Martin Nesirky, the Office said, “What Dr. Ali-Akbar Velayati quoted Ban Ki-moon in his meeting with Supreme Leader of Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyed Ali Khamenei is based on assertions of Ban Ki-moon himself and naturally the audio and visual documents of the meeting, attended by reporters, are available. In the meeting, the UN Chief referred to the Supreme Leader as: "As a supreme leader and also religious leader of not only Iran, but also this region, you can play crucially important role.” “You have an important role to play; you have been playing in the situation in Lebanon, Iraq. I know you are very much concerned for situation in Bahrain. These are all the areas that Iran has been playing and will continue to play an important role. I like to focus on one area today, on Syria. One of my main purposes of coming to meet you is to ask you to exercise maximum influence in resolving this crisis in Syria… I think in this region, only Iran can play this crucially important role.”/end