DHAKA: Iran is not among the first round of nations invited to attend Syria peace talks in Switzerland later this month.

A UN spokesman has confirmed, reports Al Jazeera.

However, the UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon ‘is in favour of inviting Iran’, spokesman Farhan Haq said on Monday.

Invitations to the talks are subject to approval by the initiating states, Russia and the US, which have not yet agreed on Iran`s role in the talks.

Haq said the UN hopes that can be resolved at a January 13 meeting between US state secretary John Kerry and Russian foreign minister Sergey Lavrov.

Meanwhile, Tehran on Monday brushed aside a US offer of a sideline role in the so-called Geneva 2 talks, suggesting such an arrangement would not respect the country’s ‘honour’.

"Iran has always announced its readiness to participate (in the Syria talks) without preconditions,’ Iran foreign ministry spokeswoman Marzieh Afkham told the official IRNA news agency.

BDST: 1529 HRS, JAN 07, 2014
Edited by Robab Rosan, Current Affairs Editor