Iranian President Hassan Rohani said on Wednesday January 22 that he does not see much hope for success at the Geneva 2 conference aimed at resolving the Syrian conflict.

Rohani, who spoke prior to his flight to attend the World Economic Forum in Davos, said today: “With the current signals, we have little hope that this meeting [Geneva 2 talks] could fight terrorism, because many supporters of terrorism are present at this gathering.”

He added: “This cannot lead to stability in the region because some of the countries responsible for creating this instability are attending the meeting.”

On January 19, the UN extended an invitation to Iran to attend the meeting but then withdrew the invitation a day later, after Iran refused to officially accept the outcome of the first round of Syrian peace talks and the Syrian opposition threatened to withdraw from the talks.

The talks had a rocky start this morning. With the UN acting as mediator, representatives from the Assad government and a coalition of Syrian opposition groups met with delegates from 39 countries.

Radio Zamaneh