about future elections. hopefully starting with discussing first what is the most urgency for the syrian people who have heard already constitution. they want to hear about ceasefire and about humanitarian aid. that doesn't mean that we will not at any occasion of this proximity talks, not establish spatial working groups in order to address specific scientifically specific areas. for instance, the type of monitoring of ceasefire that is a special working group with specialists. yes. katrina.

>> we have the kurdish opposition members, some of whom have said that they would not participate in the geneva meeting. thank you. i believe that the riyadh meeting no doubt will be far more useful and concrete. it will focus -- >> i'll start over. i think that the riyadh meeting is a formal proactive one, since it will be based on the fact that the of itsations will be sent out tomorrow, so this will be very useful for us, as well. it will be clear that matters

are serious and urgent. thank you. >> james bays from al jazeera. most important question here, you're not going to read is a list of who you are going to invite, but who you are going to invite and you are going to shuttle between the different delegation misthat how many rooms will you be shuttling between? how many delegations will there be? >> the issue about a rooms and delegations will be part exactly the creativity of these proximity talks. you have said yourself because there will be in my opinion a lot of shoaling because there are not only delegations, but civil societies, women and others who deserve to be heard. the issue is they will be meeting me and my colleagues and those we will be assigning as facilitators or negotiators, so you could have quite a lot of

simultaneous meetings taking place. >> nina larson a.f.p. >> yeah, i was more on the format. is there any possibility of getting direct talks do you think going and also if you're going on for six months, can you say a little bit about how you see that process continuing, because i guess the people, the delegations coming here aren't going to be staying here for six months. >>ery correct. in terms of vision, safe communique, faster, things may go slower. i can tell you in advance don't be surprised there will be a lot of posturing, we know that, a lot of walk outs and walk ins because a bomb has fallen or

someone has done an attack and you will see that happening. we should not be impressed or depressed, but that is likely to happen. the important thing is that we keep the momentum. the first plan would be that the first part of the talks should be lasting between two and three weeks and then give a time for the various inciden interlocutoo take the next stems and give us time to prepare for the next round, so it is not six months full time, everybody in one room not walking out. the name of the game is to be as flexible as possible to adjust to the different challenges of this type of intra as herian talks. -- can i just do it myself? otherwise i start looking all the too i am here.

i prefer not. morgan from bbc. >> you're definitely going ahead friday even if maybe you send out invitations and people just don't come, you're going to start. >> there is never the word definitely or never, in this type of job, but we are definitely going to aim at starting the meetings on the 29th. ok? invitations will be shipped tomorrow. people may find it difficult to travel. people may have visas which may be delayed, things like this that, but remember, proximity talks doesn't mean an opening ceremony. we will be meeting some on monday or tuesday. proximity talks.

ok, please. >> i was going to ask you about the sending having invitations. are you going to send the invitation and are these two groups will be in the list of the persons who are invited to the talks, i'm talking about two groups that are terroristic according to the russian federation, thanks. >> i hope you will bear with me the fact that i'm not going -- in asking me about the details of the invitations. i'm just simply going to say i am sending invitations based on the mandate i've been given by the security council to actually issue invitations and i will do that tomorrow. can i look on the left side, yes, please. please. >> from reuters. originally, i think you had a ceasefire and list of terrorist

groups that was supposed to be on the table the day you started the talks. neither of those things incite what is your expectation, for when you might get those two things? thank you. >> things are moving and i think probably there is a much better understanding by those who have been insisting on preconditions, such as we need a list in advance of the who is a terrorist, or we need to have a clarity about who is the opposition in terms of understanding also that what matters is also starting the talks with some type of minimum common understanding. the process of deciding on who should be in a terrorist lift is still on going. jordan has been kind and generous in wanting to take that very difficult job. there are the processes taking operation in the security

council in the u.n. they are committed on it. all that will continue and probably put more clarity on what is considered terrorists. at the moment, i am basing myself on what the security council tells me. the security council has been telling me isil and al-nusra, that is what i've been hearing from the security council. yes. jewel i have two questions. many of my colleagues here and myself covered the second international conference on syria two years ago and at that time, we were working, now two years has gone by. the situation has worsened, so what do you think are the main obstacles against the

establishment of peace in syria? my second question is what might we expect from the peace talks this time? thank you. >> well, these are far reaching and deep questions. i think as to the obstacles, it's mainly the lack of trust, and the lack of political will to respect that was always said, but has not been done yet. there is no military solution, only a political solution. in words, this was said, but de facto, this was not followed, so that's the main obstacle. we will verify whether this is in fact the truth or not, as to the remainder, we should expect the outcome of the conference.

>> the saudis have declared you persona non-grata. >> i myself was very surprised to read that, to see what i was in fact traveling to riyadh, because i was here at the time, and i fully intended to remain to prepare this meeting, so i have no plan, and i had no plan to go to riyadh. i was in contact with prince muhammed yesterday on the telephone. and we have excellent working relationships. i think you should all be prepared. >> there would be a lot of disinformation and messaging in order to create these type of things. be kind like you're doing to check with me. none of this is correct, neither

one nor the second. yes, the gentleman with the light shirt. >> thank you, from associated press. i appreciate that you mentioned that you don't want to provide details on the invitations, but just today, the turkish foreign minister mentioned that the y.p.g. in particular, if they were to go invited, that would spell the end of the talks in their view. i would appreciate if you just comment on that. you obviously made a reference to the fact that both al-nusra front and al-qaeda are not here. can we assume it is open to everyone else? >> no, it will depend very much on the interaction between both the syrians and on those

countries who are an influence on the conflict. i would not make a comment beyond that. i will not make a comment on that. i will turn down there and then back there. please, yes. >> i had like to ask a question on the modalities for the meeting on the 29th. will there be two groups from the opposition would be the extended groups or will there be two separate groups? >> i won't go into the organizational details of the meeting to that extent, because this will depend in part on my discussions with those who are invited to how we will otherwise the meetings, as you should know, the proximity talks in fact give me a great leeway, a lot of flexibility as to who and

when i meet. one element, however, is clear, which is that we will be holding those proximity talks until such time as we can hold direct talks. as to the remainder, we will remain adaptable because the situation requires that. we have to learn from the experience of geneva two talks. i see no other questions. yes? >> i'm from the newspaper in geneva. the riyadh opposition, if we are determined that, has been repeating for the past few days that it will not come as long as bombing continues and there's no

ceasefire. has this group changed its views, have you invited it a second time or are you waiting for it to change its mind and now on the ceasefire, are you expecting a general ceasefire or a local regional one, region by region? >> well, every party has a right to decide when it wishes to come, but our main principle is no preconditions, so just come and talk about everything that i guess of concern to you. in this specific case, it's already clear that we will be pushing and i think from the america and russian side, there's also an interest in this. at the beginning, we will

discuss a ceasefire, so the choice is to start talking about it before or during. now, we do have away priority, so if we instead of talking about something for six months relating to the future of syria, we start talking about it right away. and i think that the syrians are telling us something. they say we want something concrete when you start talks, give us some concrete results so we will be pushing that ceasefire discussion. now what form could this take, will it be a general, a suspension of fighting, a pause in the fighting, well there are a great number of different forum that is such a ceasefire could take, but the conditions should be that it is a real size

fire and not just local ceasefire. this is obviously not what we want. we want something that will put an end to the fighting, but that is part and parcel of the talks. >> you said you didn't want to give us details as to who would be receiving and invitation. could you tell us what the criteria are for excluding groups? >> no, i cannot. all i can tell you is that the criteria are two be in line with what the security council has instructed me to do. that is to say, to be as inclusive as possible, and i'll stop there, but there's no doubt one category with which we will be very firm, that is to ensure

that we include women and civil society, because they are often marginalized. one more question. >> my question i guess about the suspension of fighting. how do you negotiate a suspension of fighting while you have a terrorist group fighting? with whom do you negotiate? it is a ceasefire just amongst some groups and they are allowed for example to keep on fighting the terrorist goop? because if your center is the syrian population, they will be affected anyway. >> you're touching a very crucial point and valid point. it's clear by all those who are attending the vienna process and also security council meeting that the suspension of fighting isil in particular and al-nusra is not on the table.

there's plenty of other suspensions of fightings that can take place. thank you very much. thank you. thank you. thank you so much. don't forgot the conference tomorrow on the humanitarian situation in syria. >> we've been watching a tress conference in geneva held by the special envoy for syria. his big announcement was that tomorrow, tuesday, he'll be sending out invitations for proximity talks, talks that were due to start today. those are the invitations for the talks that will now be starting on friday in four days time and they will be going on for six months. he wants the broadest possible range of people at those talks, including, he made this point again and again, women and civil society. let's talk about this announcement with our senior

analyst here. away radically different format has been announced at this press conference to the direct talks that were geneva and proximity talks before between two sides. why has he been pushed to make this hugely different announcement? >> clearly we have a process that has been intensifying, a dip process since october 30 when they first met in europe, the united states and russia and later on november 14, and then kerry invited lavrov to the united nations and the end of december, second part of december and there where they agreed to u.s. e. u.n. resolution due to fight for, clearly throughout the two month process and through today, there's a realignment of the american position with a russian position, and that's where he falls, on the free alignment of basic the americans moving closer to the russians on the question of the opposition, on the questions of negotiations and on the questions of --

united nations council resolution to fight for on the insistence of the russians demonstrated the person who had this leeway of basically defining who will negotiate with the syrian government come 29. >> are we again then seeing the russians leaning on them getting more opposition groups involved than initially the saudi's wanted? >> clearly, and not only that, remember, it was a bit of while ago, three years ago, that the united states and others, the so-called international community called the syrian national coalition the sole representative of the syrian people. we've come a long way since then. suddenly after the russians intervened four or five months ago in syria and the bombardment started and it continues by the

rues in order to effect the negotiations, certainly the americans pragmatic as they are have come around to agree with the russians on a more russian resolution, because 2254 was a draft russian resolution that by the way was rejected by saudi arabia, rejected by turkey, as well as qatar and others, but the united states insisted on goingual with the russians, who already have a huge military presence there if that and the seasoned diplomatic speaking out of that sort of realignment between washington and moscow. >> the russians had a point, saying there were too many fighters in the opposition at the talks, there weren't enough secularists for example, the kurds there. they were excluded. in riyadh, the success of riyadh, because in america, the sense of considering the very

tough conditions in syria, the dealts of hundreds of thousands, to of people come to riyadh, there are kurds, communists, secularists, women, men, islamists, liberals and fighters on the ground, so we have the two main fighting groups that are not considered terrorists by the international committee or the european geneva and vienna

the government is the government. the government still rules in damascus. the war basically continues, and it's being legitimized more and more through the russian bombardment that is going on in syria. >> you had the riyadh group saying they wouldn't come to the talks without these preconditions, the ceasefire, the humanitarian aid. those weren't happening anyway, so would they have come to the talks anyway? >> but these aren't security council mandated conditions. you can't expect the people to

go to negotiations with a regime that continues to incarcerate them, continues to kill them and continues to starve them. so the united nations security council resolution in fact mandated that. let's at least have some fruits, you know, before we get there. this is not happening and clearly we have some short cuts here. fundamentally, what is quite surprising, not shocking, but surprising, and i'm not sure how the syrian opposition is going to be reacting later this evening. i'm really looking with very, you know, impatience, if you will, because if i heard him correctly and i saw a number of them here in doha before, they said in every possible clear wording they will not go to negotiations if there's going to be more than one delegation. >> and how to there's every delegation. >> now we'll see.

>> will there be too many voices at these talks? is it too crowded now? he will be shuttling between he doesn't even know how many rooms at this stage. >> i, just on a personal note, if you will, i've met him before he came to the unit nation or the international communities envoy to syria. i met him in rome. he actually asked for that. we sat down and talked about various things. you can till he is the kind of guy, he is proud to speak arabic, proud to know the region. he is a seasoned diplomat. one thing about him is he's a very charming diplomat and probably more than willing to talk to civil society and women group but at the end of the day, is that the real nugget and axis of power in syria? to have some kind of a discussion about different

groups, about their wishes? at the end of the day, the syrian government is the one that's coming now with basically blood and fire to these talks and saying we have just changed our constitution. elections, we just had elections, so whatever you're asking, we as a regime have already started this. it's going to be very hard to pinpoint some of these issues that are crucial to the opposition, that are crucial to the syrian people. if he is going to carry these object tract over months of negotiations of proximity, it doesn't sound to me like the serious negotiations we were promised in geneva 102. >> but it is what we've got right now. >> it is what we've got. >> just to recap, we are talking about new talks due in syria on friday, proximity talks with the u.n. special envoy to syria. dew stay with us. we'll bring you much more on this at the top of the hour in just a few moments.

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the news, go deeper and get more perspectives on every issue. al jazeera america. hello from our headquarters in doha, coming up in the next 60 minutes, the u.n.'s envoy for syria said indirect talks between the syrian government and opposition groups begin friday. invitations will be sent on tuesday. >> seeking safety in europe, leaders discuss the possibility of reintroducing border controls to stem the flow of refugees. south sudan's former president