The list of participants at Syria peace talks that the United Nations will hold in January has yet to be finalized, international envoy Lakhdar Brahimi said on Monday, leaving open the thorny question of whether Iran would be at the table.
Asked if Iran and Saudi Arabia would come to the talks, Brahimi told a news conference: "We haven't established a list yet, though these two countries will certainly be among the possible participants."
Brahimi plans to meet US and Russian sponsors of the talks again on December 20, and he called on the Syrian government and the opposition to reduce the intensity of the conflict, although "being realistic" a ceasefire was unlikely to happen before the talks begin, he said.
For his part, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon reiterated that a January 22 international peace conference on Syria would seek to establish a transitional government in the war-ravaged nation and he left open the question of the attendance of Iran.
"We have a clear goal," Ban told reporters. "The full implementation of the Geneva Communique of 30 June 2012, including the establishment, based on mutual consent, of a transitional governing body with full executive powers, including over military and security entities."
Ban said nothing about the list of invitees and took no questions from reporters. The United States and European governments have said Iran could only attend the so-called "Geneva 2" talks if it embraces the outcome of the June 2012 conference in Geneva, which called for a transitional government to replace Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's cabinet.
In the same context, the Interfax news agency cited Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Gennady Gatilov as saying that there is no final agreement yet on whether Iran will be invited to an international conference to be convened in January.
For his part, US Secretary of State John Kerry said a peace conference on Syria is the best opportunity to form a transitional government to end the Syrian conflict but no one should underestimate the difficulties ahead.
"We are well aware that the obstacles on the road to a political solution are many, and we will enter the Geneva conference on Syria with our eyes wide open," Kerry said in a statement.
The United States has opposed Iran attending the meeting because of its backing for President Bashar al-Assad's forces and wants Tehran to state its support for a political transition.
"We will continue to work in concert with the U.N. and our partners on remaining issues, including which countries will be invited to attend and what the agenda will be," Kerry said.
Earlier, the United Nations announced that Syria's government and opposition will hold their first peace talks on Jan. 22 in Geneva, in an attempt to halt the nearly 3-year-old civil war that has killed more than 100,000 people.
The UN statement did not specify who will be representing Syria's opposition at the talks, but Britain's foreign secretary said the main opposition group, the Syrian National Coalition, will participate. The group, who were not immediately available for comment, has limited control over the myriad rebel groups fighting Assad's forces.
Earlier this month, the Syrian National coalition agreed to attend peace talks if a number of conditions were met, including humanitarian corridors to give relief agencies access to besieged areas and the release of detainees, particularly women. But the group stressed that Assad would have no role in the transitional period. The coalition dropped an earlier demand that Assad step down ahead of peace talks.
Syrian government officials have insisted Assad would not step down and may even run for another term in presidential elections scheduled for mid-2014. Recent battlefield victories have shifted the momentum of Syria's conflict in Assad's favor. Russia has been the key sponsor and ally of Assad's government, blocking U.N. Security Council resolutions that would slap it with sanctions, and continuing to provide it with weapons.
Last week, the U.N. General Assembly's human rights committee demanded that Syria's government immediately allow humanitarian aid to reach all areas of the country and stop hampering distribution with "bureaucratic impediments and other obstacles."
British Foreign Secretary William Hague called on Syrian government "to take immediate steps to alleviate humanitarian suffering across the country, and stop their brutal tactics which include besieging and attacking civilian areas."
"In the coming weeks they need to demonstrate that they will go to the Geneva II talks prepared to negotiate a political transition and end the violence" Hague, whose government, alongside other major Western powers, including the U.S., has backed the main Syrian opposition group, said in a statement.
On the field:
Dramatic amateur video uploaded by Syrian activists appeared to capture the moment a massive explosion took place in a street in Jobar, in the outskirts of Damascus, very close to a group of children.
In the footage, the children, who are answering questions being asked by an off camera interviewer, describe their experiences of the conflict.
As the interview progresses, there is what appears to be a massive explosion, the children fall, and crawl as they try to get away amid the smoke, dust and confusion.
In the next shot, some of the children are seen again, cleaned up and wearing different clothes, as they describe the moment to the interviewer.
They appear unhurt by the explosion and are seen smiling at the camera as they answer the interviewer's questions.
Damascus suburbs have been the scene of recent deadly clashes between Syrian troops and rebels trying to break a government siege.
The United Nations has raised concerns over the plight of Syrian children caught up in the war.
Over 7,000 children under the age of 15 have been killed during Syria's more than two-year-old conflict, according to UN figures.
Half of the 1.7 million Syrian refugees are children, and inside the war-ravaged country, more than three million children are in desperate need of humanitarian aid.
A top UN official earlier this year warned Syrian officials and rebel commanders alike that they risk prosecution as war criminals for atrocities against minors.
REUTERS/AP
To watch Dalal Abou Haydar's report, please click on the VIDEO above