UN, Russia, U.S. meeting fails to set date on Syria peace talks

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GENEVA, Nov. 5 -- UN-Arab League Joint Special Representative for Syria Lakhdar Brahimi said Tuesday that the tripartite meeting of the UN, Russia and the United States wasn't able to set a date for the long-delayed Syria peace talks, known as Geneva II.

"We were hoping that we would be in a position to announce a date today. Unfortunately, we have not," he told a press conference after a series of meetings with Russian Deputy Foreign Ministers Mikhail Bogdanov and Gennady Gatilov and U.S. Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs Wendy Sherman, and delegates from other three permanent members of the UN Security Council and Syria's neighbors, Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon and Turkey.

He said they have been realizing that it would not be possible for the date to be set today over last few weeks, not discovering it this morning.

"We are still striving to see if we can have the conference before the end of the year," he said.

The Geneva II conference is different from the Geneva I, which was held on June 30 last year -- the Syrians, including the government and the opposition are going to be well represented, but the opposition is not ready, Brahimi said.

"The opposition has a very very difficult time. They are divided. They are working very very hard to get ready," he said.

The three parties will hold another preparatory meeting again on Nov. 25, after the opposition groups having had series of meetings to get themselves ready, Brahimi said.

He said that he hoped by Nov. 25, these meetings of the opposition groups would produce some good results so that the peace talks could be held.

Asked whether Iran will be invited to the Geneva II conference, Brahimi said they haven't completed discussions concerning the countries and organizations that are going to be invited.

"Definetely Iran is one of the issues that need to be discussed further," he said.

He stressed again that the real solution to the 31-month crisis in Syria, which has directly affected nine million people in the country, is the political solution and the peace talks must be held without preconditions.

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