(VOVworld)- The UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on Monday started sending out invitations to the planned Geneva II peace conference on Syria. However, UN spokesman Farhan Haq has confirmed that Iran is not among the first round of nations invited to attend Syria peace talks in Switzerland later this month.

A spokesperson for Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said Iran was ready to participate in talks [Photo:Reuters]

According to Haq, 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 next Monday meeting between US Secretary of State John Kerry and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov.