UNSC urges conflicting Syrian parties to join Geneva talks without preconditions

By Azernews

By Kamila Aliyeva

The UN Security Council acknowledged the importance of Astana talks on Syria and is looking forward to their resumption in Geneva, urging the Syrian sides to participate without preconditions, according to a Security Council statement, Sputnik reported.

"The members of the UN Security Council look forward to the resumption of intra-Syrian negotiations, encouraged in the context the Secretary-General’s Special Envoy for Syria Mr. Staffan de Mistura to reconvene the negotiations as soon as possible in Geneva and urged the Syrian parties to participate in the negotiations in good faith and without preconditions," the statement said.

The Astana talks on Syrian settlement were brokered by Russia, Turkey and Iran and took place in the Kazakh capital on January 23- 24. They marked the first time since the beginning of Syrian civil war in 2011 when the government of Syria and the armed opposition sat together at the negotiations table.

In a joint statement of Russia, Iran and Turkey issued following the Astana talks, the countries agreed to create a trilateral group on monitoring the Syrian ceasefire.

Meanwhile, Staffan de Mistura said that he asked the Security Council to postpone the intra-Syrian peace talks in Geneva until February 20. Initially the talks were slated for February 8.

De Mistura stressed that the Syrian government will have an opportunity to engage in serious discussions on the issue and opposition groups, in their turn, will be given a chance to come to the Geneva talks as one unified group.

Armed conflict continues in Syria since March 2011. Government troops are confronted by militants of different armed rebel groups. Russia has begun airstrikes on terrorist facilities in Syria since 30 September 2015. The Russian military involvement follows an official request from President Bashar Assad to President Vladimir Putin.

The U.N. has repeatedly tried and failed to end the Syrian conflict, which has killed 300,000 and displaced 11 million since it began five years ago.

Many experts assessed the agreement between Russia, Turkey and Iran on the establishment of a tripartite mechanism aimed at monitoring the cease-fire as a step to a political solution which might end the six-year war.