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Security Council to hear special envoy's Syria report on Friday

Friday, 05 February 2016 2:34 AM [ Last Update: Friday, 05 February 2016 3:04 AM ]

The UN special envoy to Syria, Staffan de Mistura ©AFP

The United Nations Security Council (UNSC) is to hear a report by the UN special envoy for Syria, who has ordered a temporary halt to ongoing critical talks aimed at resolving the deadly crisis in the Arab country.

The closed-door meeting, which has been scheduled for Friday, is aimed to ask Staffan de Mistura to explain why he decided to suspend the negotiations.

The talks unraveled in the Swiss city of Geneva on Wednesday less than a week after they kicked off as the so-called High Negotiations Committee (HNC), a Saudi-backed anti-Damascus opposition group, did not attend a meeting with the envoy.

The HNC had conditioned its participation on the conclusion of an agreement on what it had called “aid access” to some Syrian towns. The group later said it would send “about 30, 35 people” to the talks, but asserted they would be there to “participate in discussions with the UN, not for negotiations."

Specifying the reason for the suspension, De Mistura said on Wednesday, "I have concluded frankly that... there is more work to be done, not only by us but by the stakeholders."

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon told a Syria donors' conference in London on Thursday that the "temporary pause shows just how deep and difficult the divisions are."

A child cries as Syrian refugees wait for a train after crossing the Greek-Macedonian border on September 29, 2015. ©AFP

The Venezuelan ambassador to the UN, Rafael Ramirez, whose country holds the Security Council’s rotating presidency, has asked for the Friday meeting.

The meeting, he said, would allow the council to "be in contact with Mr. De Mistura and to support whatever he needs to have success in discussions."

"The most important is that the countries that have influence on the opposition and on the government also have the commitment to follow with confidence the negotiations in Geneva," Ramirez said, asserting there is no "possible military solution in Syria."

The conflict in Syria has killed more than 260,000 people and forced millions from their homes since its onset in 2011.

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