'Serious' efforts exerted to hold Geneva II conference

The visiting UN-Arab League joint envoy to Syria, Lakhdar Brahimi said here Friday that serious efforts are being exerted to make happen the Geneva II conference on Syria.

The planned peace conference will take place within the next few weeks and there would be two delegations representing the Syrian government and the opposition, Xinhua quoted Brahimi as saying in a press conference.

He said that the Syrian government has accepted to take part in the conference while the opposition was still deciding its representation.

Not giving an exact date of the conference, Brahimi said that the second day of the conference would witness talks between the delegations of the opposition, the government and the UN.

Brahimi said he found "great interest" in the conference, which is a follow-up to last year's international meeting in Geneva that drafted a peace roadmap for Syria but did not materialise.

About Iran's possible participation, he said that the UN would favour its participation, however, the list of invitees hasn't been finalised yet.

A day earlier, Iran said it would take part in the conference if it was invited.

Brahimi said the Geneva II conference must be based on the statement adopted in the first conference last year.