UN PICKS JANUARY 22ND FOR SYRIA PEACE TALKS

The United Nations has set a date for talks between the Syrian
government and opposition, in an attempt to push through the first
such meeting since the start of the...
country's 32-month-old war, but
fears remain the opposition's insistence of Assad's removal from power
as precondition may stall the peace process.
UN secretary general, Ban Ki-moon, said on Monday that the conference,
to be held in Geneva on January 22, was "a mission of hope" to end the
civil war and agree a transitional government "with full executive
powers".
However Laui Safi, a spokesman for the opposition Syrian National
Coalition, said shortly after the announcement that the group would
only attend if the Syrian regime met its preconditions: the release of
prisoners and relief for besieged towns, and that the current
president, Bashar al-Assad, has no part to play in the new
transitional government.
The SNC has also said it would need the support of all rebel brigades
on the ground, including al-Qaeda-affiliated groups, before it began
peace talks.
These conditions indicate setting a date was no guarantee that talks
would go ahead, as it seems a date for talks was announced more out of
frustration than a clear plan.
The announcement was made after talks between the UN's peace envoy,
Lakhdar Brahimi, and Russian and US diplomats on Monday in Geneva.
The UN said the Geneva talks would be international, but it was not
clear from Ban's statement whether Iran would be invited. He said he
expected "all regional and international partners to demonstrate their
meaningful support for constructive negotiations".
UN spokesman Martin Nesirky added: "The secretary general expects that
the Syrian representatives will come to Geneva with a clear
understanding that this is the objective, and with a serious intention
to end a war that has already left well over 100,000 dead, driven
almost nine million from their homes, left countless missing and
detained, sent tremors through the region and forced unacceptable
burdens on Syria's neighbours."