ANKARA (AA) - Syria peace conference planned for November will not go ahead because US and Russia remain divided over what role Iran might play in talks and over who would represent Syria's opposition, said UN-Arab League envoy to Syria Lakhdar Brahimi.
Diplomats are "still striving to see if we can have the conference before the end of the year", said Brahimi speaking at press conference at UN headquarters in Geneva on Tuesday.
Brahimi said that the opposition was divided in its aims. "It's no secret for anybody, and they are facing all sorts of problems and they are working very hard to get ready. And they are not ready."
"If the opposition does not participate there will be no Geneva conference,”said Brahimi.
He added that he would bring Russian and US officials together again on November 25 and hoped that opponents of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad would have agreed on delegates to represent them some days before that.
The delay came against the backdrop of a leap in the number of Syrians uprooted by the war, nearly half the Syrian population - more than nine million have either fled the country or been internally displaced, according to the UN.
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