UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and Secretary John Kerry
While Kerry runs for cover after the UN Secretary-General invited (and then disinvited) Iran to Geneva 'peace' conference over Syria, it's very hard to believe Kerry was not to blame. "I know for a fact that this could not have been a surprise to the U.S. authorities," Ban's chief spokesman, Martin Nesirky said Monday. "It was not hasty and they were fully aware of the timing of the announcement." ...[O]ne U.N. official suggested that the U.S. had actively promoted the arrangement, saying the U.S. had even urged the U.N. chief to step up his announcement to invite Iran by a day out of concern that the news could leak. ...Other U.N.-based diplomats said it was hard to imagine that Ban had undertaken the decision to invite Iran without believing he at least had Washington's implicit support. "I have never seen Ban act without a green light from the United States," said one U.N. diplomat."