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UN

Hotel shortage could nix Genevan Syria talks

The much-anticipated "Geneva II" Syrian peace talks might not be held in Geneva due to insufficient hotel availability, UN-Arab League envoy Lakhdar Brahimi said in an interview broadcast on Tuesday.

Hotel shortage could nix Genevan Syria talks
Lakhdar Brahimi: "In a pickle" over Geneva hotel shortage. Photo: Fabrice Coffrini/AFP

UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon finally set a date last week for the peace conference, which has been repeatedly postponed since June and is now set to kick off on January 22nd.
   
But while UN organisers were glad to finally have a date to work towards, they now find themselves in a pickle, Brahimi acknowledged in an interview with public broadcaster RTS.
   
The conference is due to begin on the same day the global elite gathers for the annual World Economic Forum at the swank Swiss ski resort of Davos and will also clash with a luxury watch fair in Geneva.
   
The city's hotels are fully booked, leading organizers to look for alternatives.
   
One of them is Montreux —  a scenic town at the other end of Lake Geneva and known for its jazz festival — to gather Syria's warring parties for peace talks.
   
"If we go to Montreux, it would be for just 24 hours, while waiting for the watch show and Davos to end," Brahimi told RTS.
   
Montreux is just over an hour's train ride from Geneva, but the veteran Algerian diplomat explained that people who come to Geneva are often unwilling to accept a long commute.
   
"If you go to New York, you know that it will take you an hour or two to get into town, and you accept that," he said.
   
"In Geneva you are used to being just ten minutes from the airport, so if we told people they would have to travel for an hour and 15 minutes, they would say, oh la la."
   
UN spokeswoman Corinne Momal-Vanian confirmed that the ministerial-level meeting on January 22nd itself "may indeed be held outside of Geneva because of logistics reasons."
   
She said no decision had yet been made.
   
When asked whether the conference would have to be renamed if moved, Momal-Vanian said: "We try not to respond to hypothetical questions."

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UN

‘The war must end now’: UN Sec-Gen meets Swedish PM in Stockholm

UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres met Sweden's Prime Minister in Stockholm on Wednesday, ahead of the conference marking the 50th anniversary of the city's historic environment summit .

'The war must end now': UN Sec-Gen meets Swedish PM in Stockholm

After a bilateral meeting with Magdalena Andersson on the security situation in Europe, Guterres warned that Russia’s invasion of Ukraine could lead to a global food crisis that would hurt some of the world’s most vulnerable people. 

“It is causing immense suffering, destruction and devastation of the country. But it also inflames a three-dimensional global crisis in food, energy and finance that is pummelling the most vulnerable people, countries and economies,” the Portuguese diplomat told a joint press conference with Andersson. 

He stressed the need for “quick and decisive action to ensure a steady flow of food and energy,” including “lifting export restrictions, allocating surpluses and reserves to vulnerable populations and addressing food price increases to calm market volatility.”

Between the two, Russia and Ukraine produce around 30 percent of the global wheat supply.

Guterres was in Stockholm to take part in the Stockholm 50+ conference, which celebrates the 50th anniversary of the United Nations Conference on the Human Environment. 

The conference, which was held on the suggestion of the Swedish government in 1972 was the first UN meeting to discuss human impacts on the global environment, and led to the establishment of the UN Environment Program (UNEP). 

At the joint press conference, Andersson said that discussions continued between Sweden and Turkey over the country’s continuing opposition to Sweden’s application to join the Nato security alliance. 

“We have held discussions with Turkey and I’m looking forward to continuing the constructive meetings with Turkey in the near future,” she said, while refusing to go into detail on Turkey’s demands. 

“We are going to take the demands which have been made of Sweden directly with them, and the same goes for any misunderstandings which have arisen,” she said. 

At the press conference, Guterres condemned the Russian invasion of Ukraine as “a violation of its territorial integrity and a violation of the UN Charter”.

“The war must end now,” he said. 

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