Mansour Receives Invitation to the Geneva II Talks

Caretaker Foreign Minister Adnan Mansour received on Tuesday an invitation from U.N. chief Ban Ki-moon to attend the Geneva II summit on January 22.

The multinational opening session will be held in Montreux, a city northeast of Geneva, before talks involving the opposing Syrian delegations and U.N.-Arab League peace envoy Lakhdar Brahimi are to continue in Geneva from January 24.

The international talks aim at helping the feuding Syrian groups to put an end to the ongoing violence in the neighboring country through agreeing on a political solution that safeguards Syria's independence and sovereignty.

A spokesperson to the U.N. leader announced on Monday that invitations are being sent to participating countries, but pointed out that Iran is not on the list of invitees.

The so-called Geneva II conference is a follow-up to one held in the Swiss city in June 2012, where world powers called for a Syrian transition government.

But the warring sides failed to agree on whether President Bashar Assad or his inner circle could play a role in the process, and amid spiraling fighting the plans for Geneva II were repeatedly put on hold.