GENEVA - Delegates from the United Nations, the United States and Russia arrived at the Palais des Nations in Geneva Tuesday afternoon for a new tripartite meeting to further the preparations for the international conference on Syria backed by the U.S. and Russia.
Senior officials attending the meeting include UN-Arab League Joint Special Representative Lakhdar Brahimi, U.S. Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs Wendy Sherman, and Russian Deputy Foreign Ministers Mikhail Bogdanov and Gennady Gatilov. It was the second time for the high-ranking officials from the three parties to hold such a tripartite meeting to discuss preparation work for an international conference on Syria which was initiated by Russia and United States. The situation on the ground in Syria has hardly improved since the June 5th tripartite meeting, as Brahimi highlighted before the new preparation meeting started, and the international community was more and more conscious of the fact that the Syrian crisis was not only a national tragedy for the Syrian people but also a major threat to regional and international peace and stability.
As for the latest events in Lebanon where over 50 people were killed, Brahimi said it was a stern reminder to all of the risks of the conflict in Syria spreading across the border to neighboring countries, and expressed his support to Lebanese government and all those who were acting to contain this very serious crisis in their country.
“We will resume our discussions that we started here on June 5. Fundamentally, we will be assessing what needs to be done by us, the three parties that are participating in this meeting, as well as by others to create the right conditions for the Geneva Conference on Syria to take place with the best chance of success. When would be the best time for the conference to take place, who should participate in it, and how should it be structured are some of the questions that we will discuss,”Brahimi made the remarks before attending the second closed-door preparation meeting held this afternoon.
He was confident that the discussion would be constructive and they would make progress, but the envoy noted that he cannot be certain that all these questions would be resolved today.
As for the date of the international conference on Syria, dubbed Geneva II, “I doubt whether this conference will take place in July,” said Brahimi, adding that the Syrian oppositions would be not ready then since they would hold a meeting on July 4th and 5th.
Having stressed the situation in the region “was extremely serious”, Brahimi called for people, governments in the region and the big powers, particularly the U.S. and Russia, to act to contain this situation that is getting out of hand, not only in Syria but also in the region.
The previous tripartite meeting, held on June 5, failed to set a date for the Syrian peace talks. After that meeting, Brahimi said it would not be possible that the international conference on Syria to be held in June, and they would continue the consultations with Russia and the U.S. to see “windows of opportunities” to hold the international conference as soon as possible, hopefully in July. (Xinhua)