Damascus supports positive UN plans to end crisis: Minister

Syria’s Information Minister Omran al-Zoubi says his country supports any “positive” proposals by the United Nations (UN) special envoy to Syria to resolve the conflict in the Arab country.

Zoubi said on Tuesday that if Staffan de Mistura travels to the Syrian capital, Damascus, and proposes a “positive thing,” it will be “supported by the Syrian leadership, which [has] proved... that it has been standing by any effort leading to a solution for the crisis in Syria.”

A spokesman for the UN said on Friday that de Mistura is expected to submit initiatives to the UN by the end of this month in a bid to help resolve the Syrian crisis.

The UN envoy “intends to finalize by the end of July his proposals to the secretary general (Ban Ki-moon) on a way forward to support Syrian parties in their search of a political solution to the conflict,” the spokesman said.

“Until now, the Syrian leadership hasn’t been informed about a new action plan by UN Special Envoy on Syria Staffan de Mistura,” the Syrian minister said.

Zoubi added that when de Mistura proposes the plan, “the Syrian leadership will study it.”

“However, we can’t talk now about” something that does not exist, he added.

The senior Syrian official said the countries backing the terrorists operating against the Syrian government are the main obstacle in the way of a peaceful solution to the crisis.

Since March 2011, Syria has been grappling with foreign-sponsored militancy. The crisis has left nearly 230,000 people dead.

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