UN withdrawn its invitation to Iran to attend Syria Peace Conference

Ban Ki-moon, the Secretary-General of United Nations on 20 January 2014 withdrew the invitation for Iran to join the peace conference on Syrian crisis. This action was taken following the Tehran’s step to back the plan to form a Syrian transitional government, which is the basis of the conference.

Apart from this, the other reason for the withdrawal of the invitation is reports that indicate the political opposition of Syria saying, until the Secretary General retracts the invitation to Iran, it would withdraw from the talks. US have also suggested to UN headquartered in New York that it could support Iran’s participation if it explicitly declared support for the action plan.

Peace Conference on Syrian Crisis has been planned to end the nearly three-year-old civil war of Syria voicing deep disappointment. The one week long conference opening will take place in Montreux, Switzerland on 22 January 2014 and its foundation for the negotiations between the Syrian parties will begin on 24 January 2014 in Geneva. The peace conference is the biggest diplomatic effort to end the three-year conflict.

Earlier, after Foreign Minister Javad Zarif’s assurance to UN that his country understands the basis of the talks in full implementation of an action plan, which was adopted in the so-called Geneva Communique of 2012 allowed UN to invite Iran to attend the conference. The Geneva Communique of 30 June 2012 remains the internationally agreed framework for ending the crisis and calls for a transitional government to lead to free and fair elections.