FILE - In this Saturday, June 30, 2012 file photo, Kofi Annan, Joint Special Envoy of the United Nations and the Arab League for Syria speaks during a news conference following the Action Group on Syria meeting in the Palace of Nations, at the United Nations' Headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland. Special U.N. envoy Kofi Annan acknowledged in an interview published Saturday, July 7, 2012 that the international community's efforts to find a political solution to the escalating violence in Syria have failed. Annan also said that more attention needed to be paid to the role of longtime Syrian ally Iran, and that countries supporting military actors in the conflict were making the situation worse. (AP Photo/Martial Trezzini, Keystone, File)