DHAKA: Syrian government and opposition negotiators will meet for the first time since start of the country’s 32 month-old war in Geneva from January 22.

The United Nations announced on Monday, reports The Straits Times.

UN leader Ban Ki Moon called the landmark conference ‘a mission of hope’ to end the civil war.

But he stressed to both sides that the aiming of the meeting will be to carry out a declaration adopted by the major powers in June 2010 calling for a transitional government.

‘The secretary general expects that the Syrian representatives will come to Geneva with a clear understanding that this is the objective, and with a serious intention to end a war that has already left well over 100,000 dead, driven almost nine million from their homes, left countless missing and detained, sent tremors through the region and forced unacceptable burdens on Syria’s neighbours,’ said UN spokesman Martin Nesirky.

BDST: 1822 HRS, NOV 25, 2013