It has resulted in more than 250,000 deaths and made refugees of half of Syria’s 22 million people.
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U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry praised “the unprecedented degree of unity” in the council, which has been stymied in the past over a political solution in Syria, and called the resolution “a milestone”.
The resolution came after Moscow and Washington clinched a deal on a text. Another goal of the meeting is to discuss ways to intensify the fight against Islamic State militants, also known as ISIL, one of the groups battling the regime of Syrian President Bashar Assad.
A complicating factor in the war is ISIL, one of the biggest threats to Assad’s rule.
“Thousands of people have been forced to live in grass and weeds”.
The black box’s findings will be revealed on Monday, the air force said.
“We’re not entering any negotiation until all the points in “Geneva 1″ are applied, which is that Assad and his government must not be in power, the transitional period has to be without him and he must be tried for his crimes”, said Riad Hijab, a former Syrian prime minister who defected in 2012.
The resolution, reviewed by The New York Times, makes no mention of whether or not Assad would be able to run for office in new elections, which the resolution says must be held in the next 18 months.
It “demands that all parties immediately cease any attacks against civilians and civilian objects” and “stresses that the Syrian people will decide the future of Syria”.
Emphasising the need for a ceasefire monitoring and verification mechanism, the Council asked the UN Chief to report back to it on options with a month, and called on Member States to provide “expertise and in-kind contributions” to support such a mechanism.
However, actions against groups considered terrorist organisations would not be affected.
“Here in NY we will be seeking to harmonize as much as possible the opposition position with what we discussed in Vienna”, German Foreign Minister Frank Walter-Steinmeier said.
Kerry said other countries would help Jordan draw up a final list.
Lavrov stressed that “terrorists of all stripes have no place in the talks” and said, “It is inadmissible to divide terrorists among good and bad ones”.
Serious differences remain between Russian Federation and Iran, which support the government of Syrian President Bashar Assad, and backers of the Syrian opposition, including the United States, key European nations, Saudi Arabia and Qatar.
Wang said the two most important issues are launching political negotiations and implementing the cease-fire.
The Riyadh conference agreed to set up a 34-member secretariat to supervise peace talks, and that committee will also select the opposition’s negotiating team. “Without a cease-fire, peace talks can not continue to produce results”, he said.
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“I’m not sure it’s going to happen”, Churkin said of the resolution, which has been described as a rare gesture of unity in a Security Council that has been bitterly divided on Syria.
