In what appears to be an attempt to slow the flurry of Syrian factions offering excuses for why they won’t be attending the January 25 peace talks, the UN has announced today that it will not be issuing any invitations at all to the meeting, citing a lack of agreement on who is supposed to be invited in the first place.
Russia, the US, and other nations were to come up with a consensus list of which rebels are proper rebels, and which are “terrorists,” but so far haven’t come to any such agreement, leaving everyone to just assume they’re being invited.
Not that anyone’s agreed to come. Several Syrian rebel factions and the government itself have offered multiple conditions for their involvement, meaning that with just seven days until the meeting, no one is yet down as definitely attending.
UN diplomats are finally being a bit more realistic about that fact now, saying that they likely will be delaying the talks from the current January 25 date to some other date in the future. They offered no suggestions when that might be.