TEHRAN – In a telephone conversation with United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon on Sunday President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said Iran is ready to play an active role in resolving the existing issues facing people in the Middle East and North Africa.

Ahmadinejad also highlighted the importance of the UN secretary general’s role in directing regional developments to the benefit of nations in the region.
“The time is ripe for the UN secretary general to play his historic and decisive role in settling the existing issues based of mutual understanding and dialogue so that the repetition of the catastrophes in Afghanistan and Iraq can be prevented,” he said.
The president pointed to the Western countries’ interventions in the regional developments and said that the interferences of the U.S. and European governments have complicated the situation and caused worry, so the UN secretary general should call on these governments to stop meddling in the regional countries’ affairs.
“The Western countries are only looking after their own interests. Their double dealing in Bahrain and Libya and their silence about the Zionist regime’s crimes against the innocent Palestinians reveal only part of their contradictory actions in the world,” he added.
Ban Ki-moon said that he is trying to find a way to settle the regional problems through peaceful means.
He also expressed concern over the killing of Bahraini and Yemeni pro-democracy protesters and urged the leaders of these countries to show restraint and respond to the people’s demands.