The remarks came ahead of a meeting Monday at which Russia and the United States are to discuss Tehran's possible involvement in the talks set to start in Montreux, Switzerland
...home of the Helvetians, famous for cheese, watches, yodeling, and William Tell...
on January 22.
"Any trans-regional meeting that is not attended by influential players will be unable to solve the Syria crisis," Rouhani told Russian President Vladimir Putin
...Second and fourth President of the Russian Federation and the first to remain sober. Putin is credited with bringing political stability and re-establishing something like the rule of law, which occasionally results in somebody dropping dead from polonium poisoning. Under Putin, a new group of business magnates controlling significant swathes of Russia's economy has emerged, all of whom have close personal ties to Putin. The old bunch, without close personal ties to Putin, are in jail or in exile or dead...by telephone, the ISNA news agency reported.
"Thus, the Geneva 2 conference has already failed without it even being started," he added, calling the Russian-U.S. initiated forum "a negotiation show."