Report: Iran to join talks on Syria crisis alongside Assad ally Russia

Iran's top diplomat will join talks this week with the United States and other nations seeking ways to end Syria's more than four-year conflict, an Iranian news agency reported Wednesday. Afkham said Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif and three senior deputies will join the meetings, ISNA reported, marking the first major diplomatic contact between Iran and the United States since reaching a nuclear accord in July. The talks bring together some of Assad's most important international partners and his most ardent opponents amid shifting strategies in Syria, which faces an anti-government insurgency and the rise of the Islamic State across wide stretches of territory. At the same time, the United States seeks to change its policies on ground battles against the Islamic State - planning to increase direct assistance to Syrian Kurdish fighters after a U.S. training program for other rebel factions produced few gains.