Syrian opposition to announce Sochi decision today

The main Syrian opposition group said it will announce today whether it will attend a "peace congress" in Russia on January 30 that is viewed with unease by Western countries.
"On Saturday there is going to be a press conference by the head of the SNC and he will give you the decision about Sochi, if there is going to be participation or not," said Syrian Negotiations Commission (SNC) spokesman Yahya al-Aridi.
The comments came at the end of two days of what Aridi called "tough talks" hosted by the United Nations in Vienna.
Like in eight previous rounds in Geneva, the SNC and Syrian government representatives held separate talks with UN envoy Staffan de Mistura but the two delegations did not meet face to face.

Russia, which has helped turn the Syrian war in favour of its ally President Bashar al-Assad, has invited 1,600 people to the Black Sea resort of Sochi to begin hammering out a new constitution for post-war Syria.
The meeting is also backed by Iran and Turkey, two key players in the complex and devastating seven-year-old conflict, but viewed with scepticism by the opposition and Western countries.

They fear it will sideline the UN track and carve out a settlement in favour of Assad.
The United Nations is still considering whether to attend the Sochi conference and will make a decision based on the outcome of the Vienna meetings, spokesman Farhan Haq said.

"We are evaluating the situation as of the end of the talks," Haq told reporters at UN headquarters in New York.
"Once they have happened, Mister De Mistura will evaluate what the situation is and we can then evaluate from there what our presence in Sochi may or may not be.