The U.N.-Arab League joint envoy for Syria regrets the decision of one of the opposition groups, the National Coordination Committee (NCC), not to participate in next week’s international conference in Switzerland seeking to end almost three years of civil war. In a statement issued by a U.N. spokesman Thursday, Lakhdar Brahimi said he told NCC president Hassan Abdel-Azim “he respects the decision of the NCC but deeply regrets that NCC will not be part of the delegation of the opposition which will discuss in Geneva how the terrible war now raging in Syria must be brought to an end.” Brahimi said he is familiar with the work of the NCC and its members in support of democracy and the freedom and dignity of the Syrian people, noting in particular two of its members who have disappeared