UN Syria Mediator to Attend Peace Conference in Russia

Date: 27 January 2018 - 21:42

News ID: ۴۹۳۶۱

WASHINGTON (Dispatches) – United Nations Syria mediator Staffan de Mistura will attend a peace conference in Russia next week, the United Nations said on Saturday.
"The Secretary-General is confident that the Congress in Sochi will be an important contribution to a revived intra-Syrian talks process under the auspices of the United Nations in Geneva,” UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric said in a statement.
Western powers and some Arab states believe the conference in Sochi is an attempt to create a separate process that would undermine the United Nations’ efforts and lay the groundwork for a solution more suitable to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and his allies Russia and Iran.
The UN decision to send its envoy to the Syrian National Dialogue Congress in the Russian Black Sea resort of Sochi comes despite the Syrian opposition’s calls for the boycott of the event.
The next round of intra-Syrian national dialogue between Damascus and the opposition would commence in Sochi on Monday. On Thursday, Russia said some 1,600 people had been invited to the talks aimed at resolving the years-long crisis in the Arab country.
Last December, Russia, Iran and Turkey agreed to hold the congress in Sochi on January 29-30. While the Syrian government at the time immediately announced that it would attend the event, 40 Syrian "opposition” groups rejected the Russian initiative, which is also aimed at agreeing on a post-war constitution in the Arab country.
Earlier this week, Syria's main opposition group, the Saudi-affiliated Syrian High Negotiations Commission (HNC), announced that it would need further details before it could make a final decision on whether to take part in the event, which dozens of opposition armed groups have already rejected.
Eight rounds of Syria peace talks, which took place in the Swiss city of Geneva, failed to achieve tangible results, mainly due to the opposition’s insistence that the Syrian government cede power.

The UN special envoy for Syria, Staffan de Mistura, attends a press statement at the UN office in Vienna on January 27, 2018.