Canadian representatives will not attend a meeting this week to discuss the war on Daesh (ISIS) this week in Paris, CTV News reports.
The talks, which reportedly includes "significant members" of the US-led anti-Daesh coalition, will take place on Wednesday. The US, Britain, Germany, France, Italy, Australia and the Netherlands were invited to attend. Canadian Defense Minister Harjit Sajjan told CTV Canada was not included in the list.
The Canadian government has pledged to remove the country's CF-18 jets from the bombing coalition in Syria. Though no pull-date has been announced, the military action was initially committed until April of this year.
And while Canadian representatives were excluded from this week's meeting, Sajjan's communications director Renee Filiatrault told CTV Ottawa was planning for a February meeting with coalition partners. She said Sajjan was also "regularly in contact with coalition partners, including the U.S. Special Presidential Envoy for the Global Coalition to Counter ISIL, Brett McGurk."
Meanwhile, Syria's peace talks are still on shaky ground. US representatives last week said the Jan. 25 start date was still on. But this week, UN representatives said invites should be put on hold for the meetings until an agreement is reached as to whom from opposition can attend. Stalemates over that list could threaten to push back the date, according to reports.
