Geneva II Middle East peace conference

Geneva II Conference on Syria
The Palais des Nations (United Nations Office at Geneva) in October 2010.
Genre	Peace conference
Location(s)	Montreux and Geneva
Country	Switzerland
Organized by	United Nations

The Geneva II Conference on Syria (also called Geneva II Middle East peace conference or simply Geneva II) was a United Nations-backed international peace conference on the future of Syria with the aim of ending the Syrian Civil War, by bringing together the Syrian government and the Syrian opposition to discuss the clear steps towards a transitional government for Syria with full executive powers. The conference took place on 22 January 2014 in Montreux, on 23–31 January 2014 in Geneva (Switzerland), and again on 10–15 February 2014.

This conference was pursued by UN peace envoy to Syria Lakhdar Brahimi in cooperation with the United States and Russia. According to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, at least 1,870 people died across Syria during the nine days of the conference.

New peace negotiations took place in 2016 in the new Geneva peace talks on Syria (2016).

An "action group" conference (now referred to as Geneva I Conference on Syria) was held on Saturday 30 June 2012, in Geneva, initiated by the then UN peace envoy to Syria Kofi Annan, and attended by US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, Russian Foreign Minister Lavrov, a representative of China, British Foreign Secretary Hague, and Kofi Annan. Mr Annan, issuing a communiqué, said that the conference agreed on the need for a "transitional government body with full executive powers" which could include members of the present Syrian government and of the opposition. William Hague said that all five permanent members of the UN Security Council – the US, Russia, China, France and the UK – supported Mr Annan’s efforts. Clinton however suggested that Syrian president Assad could, in such transitional government, not remain in power, which immediately was contradicted by Lavrov.

The final communiqué states that any political settlement must deliver a transition that: