Mansour Receives Invitation to Attend Geneva II Preparatory Meeting

Caretaker Foreign Minister Adnan Mansour on Sunday received an invitation to attend a preparatory meeting ahead of the Geneva II summit.

Mansour delegated the Lebanese Representative to the United Nations in Geneva, Ambassador Najla Riachi Assaker, to attend the meeting.

The talks will take place on Tuesday.

U.N.-Arab League envoy Lakhdar Brahimi said Friday during a visit to Beirut that Lebanese officials were “in favor of being invited” to the peace conference on Syria in Geneva.

No final date has been set for the meeting yet.

The renewed bid for peace talks aimed at resolving the two and a half-year conflict comes after last month's U.S.-Russian accord on dismantling Syria's chemical arsenal.

But Syria's increasingly divided opposition has thus far balked, with the National Coalition saying it will not take part in the so-called Geneva II process if Syrian President Bashar Assad's resignation is not on the table, a demand rejected by Damascus.

Powerful rebel groups on the ground have meanwhile denied the Coalition represents them, and some Islamist brigades have warned any Syrians taking part in the talks would be viewed as traitors.

The Coalition, which is under pressure from its Western and Arab backers to attend Geneva II, is to meet on November 9 to decide whether to participate.

The civil war, which erupted after a fierce government crackdown on Arab Spring-inspired protests in March 2011, has claimed an estimated 120,000 lives and forced millions to flee their homes.