It also calls for a nationwide cease-fire in Syria to come into effect “as soon as the representatives of the Syrian government and the opposition have begun initial steps towards a political transition under United Nations auspices”.
Advertisement
The United Nations Security Council holds a meeting on Syria at the UN headquarters in New York, December 18, 2015.
“Turkey will continue to contribute to the planned political process in this regard”, the statement said.
The UK – which has been conducting air strikes against IS following a high-stakes Commons vote earlier this month – hopes that a move to a transitional government could allow non-extremist elements in Syria to join forces in turning their fire on IS.
“It is my firm belief and the belief of the experts in this administration, that so long as Assad is there, we can not achieve that kind of stability inside of Syria”, Obama told reporters at his year ender news conference on Friday.
French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius on Friday demanded that talks on Syria’s future yield assurances that dictator Bashar al-Assad will leave power, according to the French news agency AFP.
However, Syrian ambassador to the UN Bashar Ja’afari criticised the “glaring contradictions” between the talk about letting the Syrian people decide their fate and talking about replacing Mr Assad.
US Secretary of State John Kerry said that the world is going to see in the next few months whether the peace process actually takes hold.
Friday’s NY talks were the first by the ISSG since Saudi Arabia gathered a coalition of Syria rebel groups to form an opposition negotiating team.
Meanwhile, Anas Joudeh, a Syrian opposition figure, said the resolution has several ambiguous points that need to have clear mechanism, including the issue of naming the terrorist groups, which was expected to be done at the world powers’ meeting in NY.
After nearly five years of conflict that has killed more than 250,000 people, diplomats says the peace talks are likely to start in mid to late January. “Now I think that there will be follow-up meetings”, said Nasser Judeh, adding that countries had submitted between 10 and 20 names each.
On the eve of the talks, Assad warned in an interview with Dutch television that misguided efforts to bring about regime change would make the conflict “drag on”.
Advertisement
The United States, its European allies, Saudi Arabia and other Arab nations have insisted that Assad must go, though Kerry said “everyone” has by now realised that demanding Assad’s departure up front in the process was “in fact, prolonging the war”.
