This article is from the source 'bbc' and was first published or seen on . It last changed over 40 days ago and won't be checked again for changes.
You can find the current article at its original source at http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-25820373
The article has changed 4 times. There is an RSS feed of changes available.
Version 0 | Version 1 |
---|---|
Syria crisis: UN pulls Iran invitation to Geneva talks | Syria crisis: UN pulls Iran invitation to Geneva talks |
(35 minutes later) | |
The UN has withdrawn its invitation to Iran to join this week's peace conference on the Syria crisis. | The UN has withdrawn its invitation to Iran to join this week's peace conference on the Syria crisis. |
UN spokesman Martin Nesirky criticised Tehran for failing to back the plan to form a Syrian transitional government, which is the basis of the conference. | UN spokesman Martin Nesirky criticised Tehran for failing to back the plan to form a Syrian transitional government, which is the basis of the conference. |
The invitation to Iran, a key ally of the Syrian regime, angered the US and the Western-backed Syrian opposition. | The invitation to Iran, a key ally of the Syrian regime, angered the US and the Western-backed Syrian opposition. |
The peace conference, due to begin on Wednesday, is the biggest diplomatic effort to end the three-year conflict. | The peace conference, due to begin on Wednesday, is the biggest diplomatic effort to end the three-year conflict. |
More than 100,000 people have been killed and millions more displaced in the war. | |
UN 'disappointed' | |
The Syrian regime and the main exiled opposition group, the National Coalition, are due to send delegates to the conference, which begins in the Swiss town of Montreux. | |
The National Coalition had threatened to pull out if the invitation to Iran was not rescinded, but they have since confirmed that they will now be attending. | |
UN chief Ban Ki-moon had invited Iran after speaking in private to senior Iranian officials, who assured him that "Iran understood and supported the basis and goal of the conference", Mr Nesirky said. | |
"The secretary general is deeply disappointed by Iranian public statements today that are not at all consistent with that stated commitment," he said. | |
"Given that it has chosen to remain outside that basic understanding, he has decided that the one-day Montreux gathering will proceed without Iran's participation." | |
It is unclear whether Iran will be able to join the talks two days later, when they move to Geneva. | |
Torture allegation | |
Meanwhile, CNN and UK newspaper the Guardian are reporting claims that the Syrian regime tortured and killed thousands of detainees. | |
Some 55,000 photographs showing roughly 11,000 dead detainees were smuggled out of Syria by a defector who served as a military police photographer, according to CNN. | |
The Guardian suggests that the publication of the evidence, along with a Qatar-funded report scrutinising the defector's credibility, appears to have been timed deliberately to coincide with the peace conference. | |
The conference is the culmination of months of diplomacy. | |
In May last year, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and US Secretary of State John Kerry agreed to try to bring both sides together. | |
Later, the UN Security Council called for a conference to implement the Geneva communique - a deal on a transitional government agreed at a UN-backed meeting in 2012. | |
However, the National Coalition appears resolute that any transitional government will not involve President Bashar al-Assad. | |
For his part, Mr Assad said in an interview on Monday that the possibility of the National Coalition obtaining any ministerial positions in a new government was "totally unrealistic". |