French Foreign Minister Says Necessary to Relaunch Peace Process in Syria Under UN Aegis

MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 13th September, 2018) French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian said Thursday that it was necessary to relaunch the political process for Syria and to engage the international community in this work under the guidance of the United Nations.

"Today the fact that the guarantors of Astana [process, namely Russia, Iran and Turkey] are divided makes the political scenario weak. We need to relaunch it and make sure that the international community unites around this road map under the aegis of the UN and Special Envoy [for Syria Staffan] de Mistura. This will be a big topic during the UNGA [General Assembly] next week," Le Drian said at a press conference with his Chinese counterpart Wang Yi.

Earlier in the day, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said Russia was ready to seek mutual understanding and cooperation between the participants of the Astana process for Syrian peace and the so-called Small Group, which comprises Egypt, France, Germany, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, the United Kingdom and the United States.

The next meeting of the "Small Group" for peacefully resolving the conflict in Syria will take place in Geneva on Friday. De Mistura is set to participate in the negotiations.

Syria has been devastated by years of violent civil war that has prompted millions to flee hostilities to other locations in Syria or abroad.

The international community has taken efforts to settle the conflict by conducting political settlement talks in Geneva and reconciliation negotiations through the Astana format. These negotiations, which bring together Iran, Turkey and Russia, have significantly helped stabilize the situation in Syria, with one of the main achievements being the creation of de-escalation zones in the war-torn county.