"The US Government this week received an invitation from the Government of Kazakhstan to attend the January 23 talks in Astana," said Mark Toner, the acting State Department spokesman. "We welcome and appreciate Kazakhstan’s invitation to participate as an observer.
"Given our presidential inauguration and the immediate demands of the transition, a delegation from Washington will not be attending the Astana conference," Toner said. "The United States will be represented by our Ambassador to Kazakhstan."
Toner added, "The United States is committed to a political resolution to the Syrian crisis through a Syrian-owned process, which can bring about a more representative, peaceful, and united Syria."
Scheduled to begin on Monday, the talks in Kazakhstan’s capital of Astana will bring together representatives from the Assad regime and opposition groups. Russia, Turkey and Iran arranged the talks following a ceasefire in Syria.
Last week, then Secretary of State John Kerry had urged the incoming Trump administration to attend the peace talks.
"My hope is the next administration will decide to go," he said. "I think it would be good for them to go."
Kerry told reporters traveling with him in Paris that he hoped the Astana talks would not be a substitute for stalled United Nations-led peace talks being held in Geneva, Switzerland, but would spur their resumption.
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