UN Special Envoy for Syria Geir Pedersen on Wednesday called for the establishment of a new constructive international discussion that would help to promote the progress in achieving a political settlement in the Arab Republic
UNITED NATIONS (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 28th April, 2021) UN Special Envoy for Syria Geir Pedersen on Wednesday called for the establishment of a new constructive international discussion that would help to promote the progress in achieving a political settlement in the Arab Republic.
"If this highly internationalized conflict is to move towards resolution, we need a more constructive and comprehensive international diplomacy on Syria to try to unlock progress step for step," Pedersen told a UN Security Council meeting. "A new means of international discussion or a new international format could bring all of those stakeholders who can put something on the table to the table."
Pedersen said he spoke about the new format with the parties in Syria and critical interlocutors in Russia, the United States, Turkey, Iran, Arab states and others at the UN Security Council.
According to the Special Envoy, key international actors expressed interest in the idea even though mistrust was the central element in the minds of many.
"Exploratory consultations could help test possibilities and bridge the gaps of mistrust that hinder such an effort," Pedersen pointed out.
The Special Envoy called on the member states to swiftly begin to lay the groundwork for such an effort bearing in mind the need to explore what is possible while a relative calm on the ground is sustained.
In a bid to reconcile the Syrian government and the opposition, the United Nations launched in 2019 the 150-member Syrian constitutional committee with equal representation of the government, opposition and civil society.
The latest fifth round of the Syrian Constitutional Committee talks was held in Geneva in late January. Pedersen called the talks a "disappointment," as nothing was achieved on specific agenda issues the diplomat had defined before the session.
