Qatar has denied receiving an invitation to participate in the Syrian crisis talks to be hosted by Astana, capital of Kazakhstan this month, an official source at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said. 
The official told Qatar News Agency (QNA) that the Reuters’ report citing an official at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs yesterday on Qatar receiving an official invitation to participate in the talks is completely untrue.
Meanwhile, Reuters, quoting a State Department official said yesterday that the United States is reviewing an invitation to attend upcoming talks on the Syria conflict in Astana.
“We did get an invitation and it’s under review,” the official told Reuters, after Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov was quoted as saying the US had been invited. The talks, arranged by Moscow, will include officials from Russia, Iran, Turkey and the United Nations, and comes as US president-elect Donald Trump prepares to take office today.
Moscow, which has supported Syrian President Bashar al-Assad in a military campaign against Islamic State and US-backed opposition groups, has pushed the Astana talks with help from Iran and Turkey.
However, Tehran has said it opposed any US presence at the meeting.
A decision on whether to attend the talks will be up to the new Trump administration.
The Pentagon said in a statement yesterday that a US air strike killed an Al Qaeda leader in Syria on Tuesday.
Mohamed Habib Boussadoun al-Tunisi, a Tunisian who was involved in “external operations and has been connected to terrorist plots to attack Western targets,” was killed in the strike near Idlib in Syria, the statement said.


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