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"Momentum" of Vienna talks must not be lost: UN Syria envoy

Xinhua, November 11, 2015 Adjust font size:

In the run-up to this weekend's high-level talks on the Syrian conflict, a UN envoy said on Tuesday the "momentum" gained in preparations should not be lost in the gathering in Vienna of nations striving to end the four-year old conflict.

After briefing the UN Security Council, Staffan de Mistura, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon's special envoy for the Syrian conflict, told reporters that "The momentum in Vienna needs to not be missed."

The U.S. State Department said Secretary of State John Kerry will attend the meeting and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov was also expected at the negotiations.

"My job is to make sure that big countries like the Russian Federation, Saudi Arabia and Iran come around the table and come up with a political process," said de Mistura.

"It's time for those countries to pick up those challenges," he added.

However, neither a representative of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad nor opposition groups are expected to attend the meeting.

The second Vienna meeting will be held on Saturday to further promote political solutions to the Syria crisis.

The previous Vienna meeting, held on Oct. 30, was the first of its kind when the five permanent members of the UN Security Council sat together with regional countries to discuss political solutions to the Syria crisis.

Three working groups will begin meetings on Wednesday to address differences over terrorism, the opposition and the humanitarian crisis from the war.

De Mistura said, "It's a sign of the seriousness of wanting to address issues that have been pending."

What is expected out of the talks is a political process designed to end the fighting that has claimed more than 250,000 lives.

De Mistura said Russia and the United States are co-chairing the talks.

"The UN is not calling these meetings. We are supportive. We are participating. We are getting the job from them, from the whole meeting," he said.

"This is something I really welcome because, you know very well, when the UN alone calls for a meeting and then starts asking for certain types of things, without the fact that the big players are involved, it makes it more difficult," he said.

De Mistura said both he and the secretary-general "now want meetings to bring some deliverable to the Syrian people. One of them should be reduction of violence." Endi