Syria: Ban hails opposition group's 'courageous' decision to attend peace conference
19 January 2014 – Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has welcomed the decision taken on Saturday by the opposition National Coalition of Syrian Revolution and Armed Forces to participate in this week's international conference that aims to peacefully resolve the ongoing conflict.
"This is a courageous and historic step in the interest of a negotiated political solution to a three-year conflict that has caused so much misery and destruction," Mr. Ban said in a statement.
"I look forward to the opposition's expedited formation of a delegation that broadly represents the diversity of the Syrian opposition, including women," he added.
The Geneva Conference on Syria, which will be chaired by Mr. Ban, will open on 22 January in Montreux, Switzerland. It will then move on 24 January to the Palais des Nations in Geneva where the Joint Special Representative of the UN and the League of Arab States for Syria, Lakhdar Brahimi, will facilitate the talks between the two Syrian parties.
The conference seeks to achieve a comprehensive agreement between the Syrian Government and the opposition for fully implementing the decision of an earlier Geneva conference in 2012, which called for the creation of a transitional government that would lead to the holding of elections.
The UN has sent out invitations to the conference to more than 30 States, including the five permanent members of the UN Security Council, as well as to representatives of the Arab League, the European Union and the Organization of Islamic Cooperation.
Well over 100,000 people have been killed and more than 8 million others driven from their homes since the conflict erupted in March 2011 between the Government and various groups seeking the ouster of President Bashar al-Assad.
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