Prior to all of the 15 members of the council approving the text, Vitaly Churkin the UN Ambassador from Russian Federation said the statement would be the first political document on the crisis in Syria that has been adopted by a consensus.
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The conflict in Syria was discussed in a UN Security Council session convened late on Monday, a day after the Syrian air force bombed the city of Duma, killing 96 people and wounding 240, Efe reported.
The Security Council, which has been deeply divided over Syria, endorsed the recently announced plan by UN special envoy Staffan de Mistura aimed at setting the stage for new peace talks to end the civil war, now in its fifth year.
The UN Security Council has backed a push for Syrian peace talks as the death toll in government air strikes on a rebel-held town outside Damascus neared 100, sparking global outrage.
Venezuela’s UN Ambassador Rafael Ramirez Carreno told the council after the statement was read at an open meeting that it violates “the sovereignty and self-determination of the Syrian people by promoting a political transition including the establishment of a transitional government without its consent and thus goes against the Charter of the United Nations”.
The council demanded that all sides work for a an end to the war by “launching a Syrian-led political process leading to a political transition that meets the legitimate aspirations of the Syrian people”.
It seeks to set up four working groups with members drawn from the government and opposition to discuss safety and protection, counterterrorism, political and legal issues and reconstruction.
The statement made no specific mention of President Bashar al-Assad’s future, but Western governments have made clear that a transition would involve his exit from power, at some point in time. Radical Islamic State militants have since seized on the chaos to declare a caliphate in territory they have seized in Syria and neighboring Iraq.
“The Security Council requests that the Secretary-General report back to [it] on the results of the next phase of consultations within 90 days”.
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After more than 230,000 dead and 12 million displaced, Syria has come to represent one of the biggest failures of a post-war global body designed to help resolve the world’s most intractable conflicts.
