The U.N.’s chief envoy on Syria says he is unable to confirm his attendance at a Russian-sponsored Syrian peace congress at the Black Sea resort of Sochi next week. Staffan de Mistura has just wrapped up two days of U.N.-mediated peace talks with Syrian government and opposition delegations in Vienna.
De Mistura says he has received an invitation to attend the Sochi meeting and has been briefed on preparations for that event. He says he has taken note of the statement by the Russian Federation that the outcome of the congress would be presented as a contribution to the U.N.-brokered intra-Syrian talks in Geneva.
“I will, and I have been doing it tonight, fully brief the Secretary-General on the outcome of the Vienna meeting. It is up to him to decide what will be the response to the invitation to attend Sochi,” de Mistura said.
Critics of the Sochi talks, which are backed by Turkey and Iran, accuse Russia of trying to hijack the Syrian peace process from the United Nations and come up with a result that favors the government of Bashar al-Assad. Syria’s opposition group agrees and says it will boycott Sochi.
De Mistura says the only sustainable solution to the Syrian crisis is through an inclusive Syria-led political process.
“The ultimate goal of a constitutional process is to enable the Syrian people to freely and independently determine their own future in a U.N.-supervised parliamentary and presidential elections meeting the requirements laid out in resolution 2254,” de Mistura said.
Security Council resolution 2254 sets out the U.N.’s road map for peace in Syria. Under this mandate, de Mistura notes a new constitution will be drawn up in Geneva under the auspices of the so-called Geneva process.
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