The peace process between the Syrian government and the opposition are hurdling a possible delay on the supposed January 25 talks. The 17 countries spearheading the peace deal have been struggling to agree on the rebel leaders who will represent the negotiating table. UN diplomats articulated that the meeting will likely to be acted later than the scheduled date.
According to Yahoo! News, United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon is urging all countries from the opposition to redouble their efforts and provide the list of representatives who should be invited at the peace talks that will start in less than a week. However, the humanitarian organization cannot issue invitations unless the opposition list is agreed upon by the major powers. The diplomat countries include Russia, rivaling countries Saudi Arabia and Iran, Russia and Middle Eastern and other European nations.
Farhan Haq, UN deputy spokesman, said that conflicts of interest between key countries had yet to be settled for the meeting to carry on. He added that the organization will proceed on sending out invitations when the leaders of the countries spearheading the ISSG (International Syria Support Group) have come to a stipulated arrangement, as reported by the Business Standard.
The meeting, set on January 25, is a part of a peace process endorsed by the UN Security Council aimed at ending the five-year-old civil war that has killed more than 250,000 people and triggered a mass exodus of 4 million Syrian refugees to Europe. According to Reuters, the UN still continues to deliver humanitarian aid to the Syrian towns of Kafraya, Foua, Zabadani, and Madaya, where UN officials have raised concerns about the people struggling to live in these areas are starving to death.
Saudi Arabia's efforts to organize opposition and delegation for the talks to agree on a common platform in negotiation have been rejected by Russia and Iran, which support Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. The case is the same with the United States and other European powers, opposing Assad in his attempts in organizing the peace talks.
