SHARE
COPY LINK

UN

UN envoy: Assad ‘part of solution’ in Syria

Any peaceful solution to the fighting in Syria must involve President Bashar al-Assad, the United Nations envoy to Syria Staffan de Mistura said in Vienna on Friday.

UN envoy: Assad 'part of solution' in Syria
President Bashar al-Assad with soldiers in Syria. Photo: APA/epa/SANA

"President Assad is part of the solution," de Mistura told a joint press conference with Austrian Foreign Minister Sebastian Kurz.

"I will continue to have very important discussions with him," he added, noting that "the only solution is a political solution."

De Mistura, who was in Damascus this week where he met with Assad, is due to deliver a report on his mission to the UN Security Council on February 17.

If no solution to the conflict is found, "the only one who takes advantage of it is (the Islamic State group) Isis Daesh," de Mistura said, referring to the jihadists who have taken over parts of Syria and Iraq.

The group is a "monster waiting for this conflict to take place in order to be able to take advantage," he said.

Kurz meanwhile agreed that "in the fight against Isis it can be necessary to fight on the same side" but insisted that "Assad will never be a friend or even a partner."

Human rights groups have accused Syria's government of indiscriminate bombardment of civilians in rebel-held areas, including with crude "barrel bombs" — allegations Assad denied in a BBC interview this week.

In the interview, he also complained that in the fight against IS, "there is no dialogue" with the US-led coalition, which began airstrikes in September.

"There's, let's say, information, but not dialogue," the embattled leader said.

In a poll on Thursday, 53 percent of residents in opposition-held areas of Syria's second city of Aleppo — which has seen some of the country's worst violence since July 2012 — said they favoured de Mistura's October proposal of a "freeze" in fighting.

But a great majority also said they were sceptical that a truce would hold.

Syria's war, which began as peaceful protests in March 2011, has since killed more than 210,000 people, with regime troops shelling rebel-held areas almost daily. Several rounds of negotiations have ended in failure.

Member comments

Log in here to leave a comment.
Become a Member to leave a comment.

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. 

SHOW COMMENTS