William Hague: Syria's torturers must be brought to justice The United Kingdom has done a great deal in the documentation of human rights abuses. Part of the support we have given to moderate political forces in Syria is to train human rights activists in the recording and documentation of crimes, many of which have therefore come to the world's attention. We will do more of that. The report was commissioned by Qatar, which supports Syrian rebel and opposition groups. One of the authors, Professor Sir Geoffrey Nice, told the BBC's Newsday programme that the scale and consistency of the killings provided strong evidence of government involvement and could support a criminal prosecution. Mr Hague also answered questions in the House on the United Nations' decision to withdraw Iran's invitation to the so-called Geneva II peace conference. "It is very important to the future peace of Syria - whenever we come to that, whenever we are able to bring that about - to have Iranian commitment to it," he said. That is extremely important and that is why we have never opposed on principle Iranian involvement in the Geneva II process. I stressed last week in the Commons that it would be important for them to give some constructive signal of how they would approach Geneva, that they would approach Geneva II on the same basis as all other nations - to implement the Geneva communique of June 2012. It is a great shame they felt unable to do that publicly yesterday and that was why, to save the Geneva II process, the UN secretary-general rescinded the invitation he had issued on Sunday. In a telephone call with Iranian counterpart Mohammad Javad Zarif this afternoon, Mr Hague insisted Britain "remained open" to working with Tehran to end the conflict in Syria. Iran on Tuesday accused UN chief Ban Ki-moon of bowing to outside pressure to rescind Tehran's invitation to a peace conference on Syria and said the forum was likely to fail. "We regret that Secretary General Ban Ki-moon has withdrawn the invitation under pressure," Mr Zarif told reporters, ISNA news agency reported. "It is also regretful that Mr Ban does not have the courage to provide the real reasons for the withdrawal," he said. This behaviour is beneath the dignity of the UN's secretary general. After strong objections from the United States and the Syrian opposition, Ban on Monday withdrew his invitation to Iran, the Damascus regime's main regional ally, less than 24 hours after it was issued. Iranian participation in the peace talks has been one of the thorniest issues in the build-up to the talks opening Wednesday in Switzerland. Iran refuses to consent to a transitional government in Syria, which was agreed at a first international Geneva gathering in June 2012 to end the brutal civil war. Aladin Borujerdi, chief of Iran's parliamentary foreign affairs commission, blamed Washington for Tehran being struck off the invitation list. "Iran's exclusion shows this body changes its opinion under the influence and pressure from the US," he said. Zarif played down his country's absence from the so-called Geneva II conference, saying Tehran which had only received an invitation at the weekend was "not too keen on attending in the first place."