PARIS (AP) — Envoy Kofi Annan says in an interview with France’s Le Monde that efforts to find a political solution in Syria have failed so far, and says more attention should be paid to Iran’s role.

Annan is quoted as saying he has been working for a peaceful and political solution but “the evidence shows that we have not succeeded.”

Annan says that Russia’s role as an ally and arms supplier to Syria is key, but that Iran, too, “is a player, it should be part of the solution,” the report says.

Activists say the violence has killed more than 14,000 people since March 2011, when protesters first took to the streets to call for political reform. The conflict has since turned into an armed insurgency.