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The fate of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad should not take center stage in international efforts aimed at resolving the crisis in the Arab state, says the United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon.

Ban made his remarks ahead of a third round of international talks that are set to kick off Friday in New York, where foreign ministers from 17 countries including Iran, Russia, the United States and Saudi Arabia will discuss ways of ending nearly five years of foreign-sponsored militancy in Syria.

“It is unacceptable that the whole Syrian crisis and the solution to the crisis have to be dependent on the fate of one man,” Ban told a news conference in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, on Wednesday.

Ban’s notes come on the backdrop of the US renewed stance on the matter, amid Riyadh’s insistence on Assad’s removal as well. Tehran and Moscow on their part say it is up to the Syrian nation to decide the political future of their country.

The United States' ambassador to the United Nations had said on Wednesday that the US position on Syrian President Bashar Assad has not changed: "There is going to have to be a political transition, and Assad will have to go."

Samantha Power spoke to reporters Wednesday ahead of Friday's major international conference on Syria in New York. Power said the talks will look at the "gaps" between American and Russian and Iranian positions on the fate of Assad - and she says those gaps remain "very real."

The UN chief further pointed to differences over Assad’s political fate among the parties to the talks, saying some countries were “expressing some nuanced positions,” but this issue “will have to be decided later on.”

However, earlier on Tuesday, US Secretary of State John Kerry said the United States was not seeking regime change in Syria following lengthy talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow.

Ban had adopted a similar stance prior to the second round of Vienna talks, saying only Syrians have the right to decide Assad’s role.

The foreign-backed militancy in Syria, which flared in March 2011, has left over 250,000 people dead, according to the UN. More than 12 million people have also fled their homes, while 5.6 million children are in dire need of humanitarian aid.

The UN Security Council is expected to consider a resolution later Friday endorsing the talks.

The first two rounds of such talks were held in the Austrian capital Vienna on October 30 and November 14. There was consensus among the participants on the need to respect Syria’s national unity and sovereignty, but they remained at loggerheads over Assad’s role.

In an interview with Spanish newspapers published October 31st, UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon condemned US President Barack Obama’s demand that Syrian President Bashar al-Assad be removed from office, and Moon said: “The future of Assad must be determined by the Syrian people.”

“It is totally unfair and unreasonable that the fate of one person takes the whole political negotiation process hostage. It is unacceptable,” he had pointed out.