The exiled Syrian National Council voted in favor of taking part in the talks, the coalition's media office said Saturday.
The secret ballot was passed by a majority of 58 votes to 14, with two abstentions and one blank vote.
The 'Geneva 2' talks will bring representatives from President Bashar al-Assad's government to the negotiating table on Wednesday in what has been billed as the most serious effort yet to end the conflict.
It will be the first face-to-face meeting between government and rebel negotiatiors.
The coalition had come under significant pressure to agree to take part in the talks, which have been hit by a series of delays.
Aid reaches Damascus camp
Meanwhile food aid has entered the besieged Yarmouk refugee camp in Damascus for the first time in four months, a Palestinian official and Syrian state media said. The delivery comes after reports that dozens of people in the camp have died of hunger and lack of medical aid.
Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) official Anwar Abdul Hadi confirmed the delivery to the AFP news agency and said it was made possible after an agreement was reached on Friday between Palestinian factions and rebels in the camp.
He said Saturday's delivery was a trial run and 'further batches will be delivered successively from tomorrow.' He also said a number of sick and injured people will be evacuated from the camp on Sunday with help from the aid group the Syrian Red Crescent.
Yarmouk camp is the largest of the Palestinian refugee camps in Syria where, up until December 2012, more than 160,000 refugees lived. However, after armed rebel groups entered the camp, most fled leaving behind some 20,000 people.
The delivery was the first time food aid has reached the Yarmouk refugee camp since September 2013 when President Bashar al-Assad's government troops tightened a siege around the camp.
Since then, numerous attempts by the UN and other organizations to bring aid to the camp have been thwarted amid reports that as many as 54 people have died in the camp of hunger or lack of medical care.
The delivery came one day after UN rights chief Navi Pillay said the obstruction of humanitarian aid by the government to civilians 'may amount to a war crime.'
'Government forces and affiliated militias appear to be imposing collective punishment on the civilians in Yarmouk,' Pillay said.
ccp/hc (AFP, Reuters, dpa)
Posted by Unknown on Saturday, January 18, 2014 - Rating: 4.5
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