18 January 2016•Update: 18 January 2016
NEW YORK
Invitations to a planned Jan. 25 peace meeting on Syria have yet to be issued due to disagreements between major powers on which opposition groups should be invited, a UN spokesman said Monday, hinting at a possible delay in talks.
"At this stage, the UN will proceed with issuing invitations when the countries spearheading the International Syria Support Group process come to an understanding on who among the opposition should be invited," Farhan Haq told reporters in New York.
The UN had set Jan. 25 as the target date to bring together Syria's warring factions to begin peace talks in Geneva within the framework of a plan set out during three rounds of international talks to foster an end to the civil war.
On Dec. 18, the Security Council adopted a resolution calling for a UN-backed political process that would let Syrian factions form a transitional governing body in six months and to hold UN-supervised national elections within 18 months.
Haq said UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon urged countries backing opposing sides in the conflict to "redouble efforts" to reach an agreement on which opposition groups should be invited.
"The objective is, and remains, to get the parties to talks in Geneva by the date of the 25th of January. At the same time, of course there are concerns about arrangements ... We will have to see whether the various parties, the members of the Security Council, whether we can all come to an agreement on the best way forward. If we need to alter our timetable one way or another, we will let you know," Haq said.
The announcement came as UN's Syria envoy Staffan de Mistura was briefing the Security Council via video link from Geneva on the preparations for the talks.
When asked whether there had been discussions on a possible delay, Uruguay's UN Ambassador Elbio Rosselli, who chairs the council for January, said: "I would only say that no different date was considered today."
The Syrian conflict, which will enter its sixth year in March, has left more than 250,000 people dead and turned the country into the world's largest source of refugees and displaced persons, according to the UN.
