Politics

PARIS ATTACKS - REMARKS WITH UN SPECIAL ENVOY STAFFAN DE MISTURA

TO SERGEY LAVROV & JOHN KERRY


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USPA NEWS - In Vienna (Austria), on November 14, 2015, in the presence of Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and Secretary of State John, Kerry, intervention of United Nations Special Envoy Staffan de Mistura...
In Vienna (Austria), on November 14, 2015, in the presence of Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and Secretary of State John, Kerry, intervention of United Nations Special Envoy Staffan de Mistura.


UNITED NATIONS SPECIAL ENVOY STAFFAN DE MISTURA : Thank you. Thank you very much. And I must say, frankly, if it ““ we can say something it´s that the presence of both the Secretary of State and Minister Lavrov in this meeting and the previous meeting and being a great inspiration for all of us to make sure that this meeting also was productive.
If those in Paris yesterday who had planned through that horror to actually influence or depress the intention by the international community of doing something constructive in Syria, the response was today. Not only it was not just another meeting, but it was further momentum. As you heard, not only we have one and half page, this time we have three pages of detailed, doable, actionable initiatives. And you heard them.
The UN is ready, and thank you for your confidence and for your intention of helping UN to do that. We are ready for the intra-Syrian consultations. We have been ready for a while. We needed this, this type of critical mass coming from the International Support Group and a continuing support with them. We had it on the second time.

We are ready for starting anytime with this political process. What we need is having the two delegations. The Government of Syria has told us and has informed us ““ I was in Damascus recently ““ that they´re ready with their own delegation.
The opposition needs to come up and we will help them, because now there is a momentum and there are countries, partners in this International Support Group, who have a genuine interest in supporting us in order to make sure that we will have a consolidated opposition and cohesive opposition group.

The moment we hear that ““ and we hope that will be in December; we will be aiming at that ““ then we will start immediately the issue about inclusive governance, the issue about a new constitution, the issue about elections ““ and real elections coming up; all that within a framework of 18 months, which is quite a challenge.
But if we have this type of momentum and this type of support from everyone, it is doable.

Now, we are also very clearly indicated that the moment the beginning of this political process ““ not the end of it, the beginning of the political process ““ starts in earnest, we should be aiming in parallel for actually having a nationwide ceasefire, obviously excluding those who don´t want a ceasefire. You can imagine who they could be. If that is the case, that would be the first real message not only about another meeting which they´ve been waiting for, which is the meeting between Syrians and about serious things such as their future political scenario, but also about a reduction of violence.
The good thing about this International Support Group is that we´re having ““ and I believe you must coincide with me on that ““ we are starting seeing partners among them volunteering to actually help in actually taking on some of the leading beginning work. So we did hear that for instance Jordan, as you rightly said, is planning to assist us in order to come up with a proper analysis among other partners on what could the terrorist list.
The clear intention is to have a political process and negotiation connected with a ceasefire, the sooner the better. The secretary general has made today a strong statement supporting us and supporting and asking us to actually move forward. And we are hoping to have a Security Council meeting as well which will be indicating support to ceasefire and the political process.

So momentum is the key word and the momentum continued. And now is the test for us, for the UN, for all of us, to actually not give up on this. Thank you. Any questions?

..... TO BE CONTINUED WITH QUESTIONS-ANSWERS FROM U.S. SECRETARY OF STATE JOHN KERRY AND RUSSIAN FOREIGN MINISTER SERGEY LAVROV

Ruby BIRD
http://www.portfolio.uspa24.com/
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