The United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on Saturday urged the National Coalition for the Syrian opposition forces to reach out to other groups and forge an agreement on a united delegation for an upcoming peace conference in Geneva. Reports suggest that the peace conference will be held in mid-November. Hectic parleys are on in New York, to firm up the exact date, which is expected to be finalised this week. Meanwhile, it was known that Iran may also participate in the peace talks.

In his meeting with Ahmad al-Jarba, president of the National Coalition for Syrian Revolutionary and Opposition Forces, in New York on Saturday, the Secretary-General welcomed the opposition's commitment to send a delegation to the upcoming peace conference.

Ban "urged the National Coalition to reach out to other opposition groups and agree on a representative and united delegation," states the readout issued by the Secretary-General's spokesperson.

In his meeting with Al-Jarba, the Secretary-General also stressed the importance of a serious dialogue as soon as possible. He also pointed out the need to ensure accountability for war crimes, the spokesperson added.

The UN chief underlined the suffering of the Syrian people on all sides, as a result of the conflict. He also emphasised the hardship of neighbouring countries that are hosting Syrian refugees.

Since March 2011, the Syrian civil war has claimed over 100,000 lives. The civil war has displaced over 4 million people within Syria and sent more that 2 million people fleeing for safety to neighbouring countries.

Meanwhile, reports quoted Iraq's Foreign Minister, Hoshyar Zebari, saying that Iraq is working closely with the Syrian opposition to forge a unity among the disparate groups ahead of a November peace conference.

Minister Zebari is reported to have told a media agency that the Secretary-General asked Iraq to press the opposition to come with one delegation and one position.

The Iraqi foreign minister also revealed that there was no opposition to Iran participating in the upcoming Geneva peace conference. Iran is a key ally of Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad in the region.

The peace conference, aiming to resolve the conflict that is now in its third year, is expected to take place in Geneva, mid-November.

Reports say, Secretary-General Ban will hold consultations with his Syria peace envoy Lakhdar Brahimi next week to set the date for the peace conference and to decide who will attend the new meeting.

A first Syria peace conference was held in Geneva in June 2012. The 2012 conference agreed that there should be a transitional government in Syria with full executive powers and called for a new conference to decide how to implement the accord.

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