Syria Peace Conference Scheduled for January 22

Talks aimed at ending the war in Syria will take place in Geneva on January 22, the UN has announced.

UN leader Ban Ki-moon called the landmark conference “a mission of hope” to end the civil war.

“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 neighbors,” Ban said through UN spokesman Martin Nesirky.

“The conflict in Syria has raged for too long. It would be unforgivable not to seize this opportunity to bring an end to the suffering and destruction it has caused,” Ban’s spokesman said in a statement, as cited by international media.

The so-called Geneva-2 conference is meant as a follow-up to one held in June 2012, where world powers issued a call for a Syrian transition government.