UNITED NATIONS: More than 30 nations have been invited to attend the long-sought Syria peace conference to be held in Geneva next month, but so far Iran remains uninvited to the talks.

Mr Lakhdar Brahimi, UN Secretary General’s special envoy on Syria in Geneva, made the announcement saying member states have not been able to agree on Iran’s participation.

Brahimi said invitees to the so-called “Geneva II” conference include the UN, the five permanent members of the Security Council (China, France, Russia, United Kingdom and the United States), the League of Arab States, the European Union, the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation and 26 other countries.

“On Iran, we haven’t agreed yet. But it is no secret that we in the United Nations welcome the participation of Iran,” he told journalists in Geneva following meetings there with the United States and Russia, and then with a wider group of countries.

“But our partners in the United States are still not convinced that Iran’s participation would be the right thing to do,” he noted, adding that the remaining list of invitees for the 22 January 2014 conference has been agreed to.

The conference, originally scheduled to take place in Geneva, will now be held in two parts, with the opening session in Montreux, and, after a day’s break, moving on Jan 24 to UN headquarters in Geneva. The conference will bring the Syrian Government and the opposition to a negotiating table for the first time since the conflict started in March 2011.