Joint International Meeting on Syria Next Week

Local Editor

The president of the United Nations Security Council revealed Friday that important developments were under way in efforts to find a diplomatic solution to the 21-month crisis in Syria and there could be another US-Russia meeting with international envoy al-Akhdar Ibrahimi next week.

In a news conference, Pakistan's UN ambassador Masood Khan stated that Ibrahimi was trying to pave the way for a diplomatic breakthrough and planned to follow up talks in Moscow last Saturday with Russian foreign minister Sergey Lavrov with new three-way talks.

The Security council president for January Khan said new efforts were under way on the diplomatic track.
"There are some developments- important developments, important consultations - taking place outside the council," he said.

He further highlighted that he can't predict anything at this moment, but we're hoping that there would be a trilateral meeting sometime next week between Moscow, Washington and Ibrahimi."
Last week, both Ibrahimi and Lavrov stated after their meeting that the Syrian conflict could be settled only through talks.

Lavrov said Syrian president Bashar al-Assad had no intention of stepping down - a key opposition demand - and it would be impossible to try to persuade him otherwise.

For his part, Ibrahimi warned that the country's civil war could plunge the entire region into chaos by sending hundreds of thousands of refugees into neighboring nations.

They said in a joint statement that the situation in Syria was "bad and getting worse", adding that a political process to end the conflict was "still necessary and still possible."

Source: News Agencies, Edited by moqawama.org