UN-ARAB LEAGUE JOINT ENVOY SAYS US-RUSSIA TALKS ON SYRIA ‘EXTREMELY IMPORTANT’

From: UNNews <UNNews@un.org>
Date: 13 Sep 2013 13:00:01 -0400
Subject: UN-ARAB LEAGUE JOINT ENVOY SAYS US-RUSSIA TALKS ON SYRIA
'EXTREMELY IMPORTANT'
To: news11@ny-mail-p-lb-028.ptc.un.org

UN-ARAB LEAGUE JOINT ENVOY SAYS US-RUSSIA TALKS ON SYRIA 'EXTREMELY
IMPORTANT'New York, Sep 13 2013 1:00PMPressing ahead with his efforts
secure a diplomatic solution that would end to more than two years of
bloodshed in Syria, United Nations-Arab League Joint Representative
Lakhdar Brahimi hosted a meeting between senior officials from Russia
and the United States on devising a political path forward, in Geneva
today.

At a press conference held at UN Headquarters in Geneva after the
meeting, Mr. Brahimi spoke alongside Russian Foreign Minister Sergei
Lavrov and United States Secretary of State John Kerry. The two
Government officials have been meeting in Geneva since Thursday
discussing a Russian proposal for Syria to place its chemical weapons
under international control.

"The work you are doing is extremely important in itself […] but also
important for all those working with you to bring forward the Geneva
conference successfully," Mr. Brahimi told reporters, referring to the
long-proposed international peace conference on Syria commonly
referred to as "Geneva II."

Mr. Brahimi has been hard at work on the diplomatic front to bring the
conference to fruition, including in discussions last week at the G20
Summit in St. Petersburg. The goal of a second Geneva conference would
to be to achieve a political solution to the conflict through a
comprehensive agreement between the Syrian Government and the
opposition for the full implementation of the Geneva communiqué,
adopted after the first international meeting on the issue on 30 June
2012.

In his comments, Mr. Kerry thanked the United Nations and Mr. Brahimi
for hosting discussions on Geneva II. Those discussions have been
productive and timely, as he and Mr. Lavrov were meeting on Russia's
recent initiative to "gain control of, remove and destroy chemical
weapons in Syria and we would both agree that we have constructive
conversations."

"President is Obama is deeply committed to a negotiated solution and
we know that Russia is likewise. We are working hard to find common
ground to make that happen. We have both agreed to do homework
required to make it happen," Mr. Kerry said, announcing that he and
Mr. Lavrov planned to meet in New York during the general debate of
the UN General Assembly, which will open on 24 September.

While the two leaders would further consider the matter, including
possibly settling on a date for the Geneva II conference, much of the
way ahead "will depend on achieving success in the next hours and
days" on the question of Syria's chemical weapons, Mr. Kerry said.

"Both of us, Sergei Lavrov and I, our countries, our Presidents, are
deeply concerned about the death toll and destruction and the acts on
all sides that are creating more and more refugees, more and more of a
humanitarian catastrophe," he said, adding that the two Governments
were committed to working together.

Speaking next, Mr. Lavrov said that now that Syria has signed the
legislative decree providing for the accession of Syria to the
Convention on the Prohibition of the Development, Production,
Stockpiling and Use of Chemical Weapons and on their Destruction, "we
have to engage our professionals […] and the United Nations to design
a road so that the issue is resolved quickly, professionally as soon
as practical.

"We are very glad that Mr. Brahimi has invited us to discuss a longer
term goal for Syria, namely preparations for the so-called Geneva II
conference. From the very beginning of the Syrian conflict, Russia and
the Russian President have been promoting a peaceful resolution," he
said.

Mr Lavrov noted that Russia had initiated of the conference from which
had emerged the Geneva communiqué agreed and signed "by nearly all the
major players, including the United Nations, countries in the region
and the P-5 [the permanent members of the Security Council]."

"It is very unfortunate that for a long period the communiqué was
basically abandoned and we were not able to have Security Council
endorsement of the very important document as is," he said, thanking
Mr. Kerry for his efforts to re-energize the communiqué and work with
Russia towards its implementation including through the holding of a
new Geneva conference. He said he was very grateful for the
discussions with Mr. Brahimi.

Meanwhile, the President of the UN Human Rights Council, which is
currently in session in Geneva, issued a letter to both Mr. Lavrov and
Mr. Kerry drawing their attention o the work of the independent
international commission of inquiry on Syria, which the Council
established in 2011.

The Council President, Ambassador Remigiusz Henczel of Poland stressed
that the commission had yet to be granted access to Syria, despite
repeated calls on Damascus to allow the experts to enter the country.
The Council President suggests that the Russian and US officials might
take up the matter during the scope of their meetings in Geneva.

The commission presented its latest report to the Human Rights Council
on Monday, citing ongoing incidents of murder, rape, torture,
widespread attacks on civilians and hostage-taking committed by Syrian
forces and anti-Government armed groups. It said that "the
perpetrators of these violations and crimes, on all sides, act in
defiance of international law. They do not fear accountability."

The panel, which described Syria today as "a battlefield [where]
massacres are perpetrated with impunity [and] and untold number of
Syrians have disappeared," reported that Government and pro-Government
forces in Syria have continued to conduct widespread attacks on the
civilian population with impunity, committing murder, torture, rape
and enforced disappearance as crimes against humanity, stressed that
there is no military solution to the conflict.Sep 13 2013 1:00PM
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