The five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council were struggling to agree on a draft resolution endorsing an worldwide bid to end the five-year-old civil war in Syria, as ministerial talks began in NY.
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Initiated by Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, the resolution calls for peace talks and a ceasefire to be launched in early January.
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The resolution stipulates that the Security Council “support the ceasefire on all Syrian territory” and enter the stage of implementation as soon as the authority and the opposition take “the first steps towards the political transition process”.
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Iran will also “support inter-Syrian dialogue” aimed at ending the conflict, he said in remarks carried on Saturday (Dec 19) by the official IRNA news agency.
Aside from hosts Russian Federation and the United States, the ISSG represents Britain, the UAE, Turkey, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Oman, Lebanon, Jordan, China, Egypt, Germany, France, Iran, Iraq and Italy.
Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi was singled out for praise by Kerry, for coming all the way to United Nations headquarters in NY for just “one day”.
The idea is that Mr Assad’s regime will open talks with rebel groups next month with the aim of forming a “credible, inclusive and non-sectarian” government within six months.
Nevertheless, Kerry – who has already “agreed to disagree” with Moscow on Assad’s fate – said the vote would act as a springboard for forging ahead with peace talks.
“We know that Daesh can never be allowed to gain control in Syria so we have a global imperative here to deal with a terrorist entity but also to end the civil war”, he said, using an Arabic acronym for IS.
Once the resolution was passed, Fabius relaunched the diplomatic offensive against the Syrian president.
Within hours of its passage, Hossein Amir-Abdollahian, the Iranian deputy foreign minister, made clear his misgivings and resisted any suggestion of a political transition.
Agreement on a resolution came after a meeting of the so-called International Syria Support Group at New York’s Palace Hotel. We have more military means.
At an earlier ministerial meeting, Ban said he urged the government and opposition to implement confidence-building measures, including a halt to the use of barrel bombs and other indiscriminate weapons against civilians, as well as granting unconditional access to aid convoys, lifting restrictions on the delivery of medical aid and releasing all detainees.
The resolution further calls for the U.N.to present the council with options for monitoring a ceasefire within one month.
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The plan also calls for a cease-fire, but there is disagreement over which armed factions – besides the Islamic State (IS) group and the Al-Qaeda-linked Al-Nusra Front -should be branded “terrorists” and consequently excluded from any talks or truce.
