A man films Laurent Fabius, French foreign minister, giving a press conference during the Geneva II Syria talks at the Montreux Palace Hotel. The Geneva II talks being held in Montreux on Lake Geneva are bringing together the Syrian government, the main Syrian opposition parties (including the main National Coalition for Syrian Revolutionary and Opposition Forces), the UN, EU, Arab League and foreign ministers from over 40 countries to try and resolve the Syrian civil war which has been going on for almost 3 years and has cost the lives of well over 100,000 people. Initially the main opposition forces posited that only President Assad's removal would lead to further peace negotiations. Under pressure from Western and Arab leaders, however, they were persuaded to attend the conference without any preconditions.