Wednesday, January 22, 2014

UN chief to Syrian FM at conference: Stop talking / Ban opens Syrian peace talks, urges all sides to seize ‘historic’ opportunity to end bloodshed.- video UN

Speech at opening session of Geneva peace conference ran long, leading to terse exchange with Ban Ki-moon.

The bell ran five times during Syrian Foreign Minister Walid al-Moallem's speech Wednesday at the opening session of the Syrian peace conference, signaling he had exceeded the time limit.


But al-Moallem refused to stop, setting off a tense exchange with United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon that showed the tensions in trying to resolve Syria's bloody conflict.

Here's the exchange:

Ban: Can you just wrap up please.

Al-Moallem: I came here after 12 hours in the airplane, I have few more minutes to end my speech. This is Syria.

Ban: How much do you have left now?

Al-Moallem: I think 5-10 minutes.

Ban: No, no. I will give you another opportunity to speak.

Al-Moallem: No, I cannot divide my speech. I must continue ... I will do my best to be fast.

Ban: Can you just wrap up in one or two minutes?

Al-Moallem: No, I can't promise you, I must finish my speech. ... You live in New York, I live in Syria. I have the right to give the Syrian version here in this forum. After three years of suffering, this is my right.

Ban: We have to have some constructive and harmonious dialogue, please refrain from inflammatory rhetoric.

A-Moallem: It is constructive, I promise you, let me finish.

Ban: Within 2-3 minutes please, I will give you another opportunity.

Al-Moallem: You spoke for 25 minutes, at least I need to speak 30 minutes.

Few minutes later, Ban interrupts again. Al-Moallem says he has one sentence left, to which Ban asks him to keep his promise.

"Syria always keeps its promises," al-Moallem replied, triggering approving laughter from the Syrian government delegation behind him and a wry grin from Ban.
http://www.haaretz.com/news/middle-east/1.569987
22/1/14
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  • Ban opens Syrian peace talks, urges all sides to seize ‘historic’ opportunity to end bloodshed.- video UN 

22 January 2014 – Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon today opened a concerted new effort to end the brutal civil war in Syria, urging the Government, the opposition, and representatives of some 40 other countries and regional organization to seize the historic opportunity to end the bloodshed.
“After nearly three painful years of conflict and suffering in Syria, today is a day of fragile but real hope,” he told the opening session of the high-level segment of the United Nations peace conference on Syria in Montreux, Switzerland.

“For the first time, the Syrian Government and the Syria opposition, countries of the region, and the wider international community are convening to seek a political solution to the death, destruction and displacement that is the dire reality of life in Syria today. 

“All Syrians, and all in the region affected by this crisis, are looking to you gathered here to end the unspeakable human suffering, to save Syria’s rich societal mosaic, and to embark on a meaningful political process to achieve a Syrian-led transition.” 

Today’s meeting, designed to give international support to the efforts to resolve the deadly conflict that has torn Syria apart, will be followed on Friday by talks between the Syrian parties at UN headquarters in Geneva in what will be the first time that the Government and opposition meet at a negotiating table since the conflict started in March 2011. 

The basis of the talks is full implementation of an action plan adopted in the so-called Geneva Communique of 2012, adopted at the first international conference on the conflict, and which calls for a transitional government to lead to free and fair elections. 

But participants will also seek to make arrangements for humanitarian aid to flow into a country where well over 100,000 people have been killed and nearly 9 million others driven from their homes since the conflict erupted between the Government and various groups seeking the ouster of President Bashar al-Assad.
un.org
22/1/14

4 comments :

  1. 'We have taken the first small step' – Ban Ki Moon on Syria peace talks....

    UN Secretary General Ban Ki Moon said that ‘the really hard work begins on Friday’ with regard to reaching a diplomatic solution in Syria. “Nobody underestimates the difficulty of this issue,” he announced on the first day of peace talks in Switzerland.

    UN mediator Lakhdar Brahimi added that it was unclear whether they would be able to successfully bring the two Syrian sides face to face in the same room on Friday.

    “Hopefully by the afternoon we will be able to meet with both sides in one room…of course the results will not be brought about in a speedy way, this will take a great deal of time,” Brahimi said. He stated that he will be meeting with the Syrian delegations separately on Thursday, prior to the first round of negotiations.

    As questions were fielded, Ban added that all parties must “respect international humanitarian law”, which he said had been “flagrantly violated in this conflict.” While state institutions must be preserved, civilians are facing desperate health conditions, he pointed out. He further stated that he has urged the Syrian government to release detainees as a confidence-building measure.

    Ban added that arrangements must be made for a local ceasefire and urged for the resolution of the violent conflict in the country to be conducted through political dialogue, rather than military means.

    “There is no other solution,” he said. “I have been urging all the countries - who have been providing arms to either side…[to] stop - and encourage them to engage in political dialogue.”

    Some 100,000 people have been killed over the course of the conflict, and millions displaced.

    The Geneva communiqué seeks to formulate plans for political transition within Syria.

    However, Wednesday’s talks witnessed fraught scenes between international heavyweights, with Syrian Foreign Minister Walid Muallem telling US Secretary of State John Kerry that no one had the right to “withdraw legitimacy” from the Syrian president or government.

    Kerry reiterated his stance on the Syrian government, insinuating that there will be no resolution until Assad is removed from government. “Saving Syria is impossible while Assad remains in power,” he said.

    Speaking to reporters, Kerry said the purpose was to create a transitional government and that the outcome of the talks “cannot be about one man, or one family, insisting on clinging to power.” Syrian delegates responded stating that there would be no transfer of power.

    Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has urged both the Syrian opposition and its foreign backers not to concentrate their focus exclusively on a change of leadership in the country.

    “As for guarantees that the talks will not collapse - it is necessary to influence both delegations so that this does not happen,” Lavrov said after talks on Wednesday. “The main thing is to start the process," he said, adding that the less-difficult issues to resolve would be ensuring humanitarian aid, prisoner swaps, and other confidence-building steps.
    http://rt.com/news/syria-geneva-talks-opposition-043/
    22/1/13

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  2. Geneva-2: Syrian sides say ready for local ceasefire, but no confidence in it - Brahimi ...

    International mediator Lakhdar Brahimi said on Wednesday that both of Syria's warring sides are prepared to discuss improving access for aid supplies, prisoner swaps and local ceasefires.

    Brahimi, addressing a final news conference after an international conference in Switzerland, said: "We have had some fairly clear indications that the parties are willing to discuss issues of access to needy people, the liberation of prisoners and local ceasefires."

    United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon told reporters that he had urged the Syrian government to release detainees as a confidence-building measure.

    Brahimi to meet two Syrian sides on Thursday

    UN mediator Lakhdar Brahimi said on Wednesday that he will meet both Syrian delegations separately on Thursday, a day ahead of their first negotiations when he will try to bring them into the same room.

    Brahimi, speaking to a news conference after all-day ministerial talks in the Swiss resort of Montreux, first said it was not clear whether he would be able to bring two sides into the same room at the United Nations in Geneva on Friday.

    "We will try to see if we meet Friday morning separately and hopefully by Friday afternoon both sides will sit in one room," he said later.

    Describing the challenge ahead, Brahimi said: "We have no illusion that it is going to be easy but we are going to try very hard."

    Voice of Russia, Interfax, Reuters
    Read more: http://voiceofrussia.com/2014_01_22/Geneva-2-Syrian-sides-say-ready-for-local-ceasefire-but-no-confidence-in-it-Brahimi-8444/
    22/1/14

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  3. Geneva-2: participants agree Iran must be involved - Lavrov ...

    Overall, Moscow is content with the first day of peace talks in Montreux, said Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov. Indeed, it is the first time in three years of Syrian conflict that both sides of Syrian crisis came together at negotiating table. The majority of players at the conference believe that Iran should be involved in negotiating process, said Lavrov after the first day of talks.

    "I talked to most of the participants of the conference and have not heard from any of them that the current format is ideal. Many have voiced their concern that Iran is playing a very important role in this political process and we must find a way to involve Tehran in Syria-talks”, said Lavrov.

    Russian Foreign Minister also added that he hasn’t yet heard an exhaustive explanation concerning the non-participation of Iran from his UN colleagues.

    According to Lavrov, Geneva-2 format can be readily expanded.

    "From all I heard from my colleagues, there is a great need to bring in new players into negotiation process and act in accord with Geneva communique," said the head of the Russian Foreign Ministry in Montreux.

    “The beginning was very difficult, it was a complicated process”, said Lavrov. “But the fact that we managed to hold the inaugural meeting of Geneva-2 is already a big progress”.

    It was also agreed during the meeting that the High Representatives of Russia, the US and the UN will develop a plan for the exchange of prisoners of war between the Syrian government and the opposition forces. The exchange is expected to help build trust between the two parties to the conflict, said Lavrov.

    “Together with our American colleagues and the UN personnel we will work out the details of such move. As you know, on the practical level we have to agree on the lists of prisoners from both sides”, said Lavrov.

    The first day of the Geneva-2 international conference on Syria did not produce any sensations, nobody hoped for achieving any understandings so soon, Sergei Lavrov has said.

    "I believe that the conference was held as expected. Nobody hoped that any outline of an understanding, to say nothing of an understanding itself could be reached at this first ceremonial stage," he said to journalists after the first day of the conference.

    "Predictably the sides came up with quite emotional statements, mutual accusations were made and I will repeat that it was expected because the conflict had built up for three years and the first contact between the government and one of the opposition groups that enjoys broad support from a whole number of foreign players could not be cloudless," Lavrov stressed.........Read more: http://voiceofrussia.com/news/2014_01_22/Geneva-2-participants-agree-Iran-must-be-involved-Lavrov-9825/
    22/1/14

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  4. Syrien-Friedenskonferenz Aggressive Stimmung im Saal...

    Montreux – Mit einem heftigen Schlagabtausch hat die Syrien-Friedenskonferenz im schweizerischen Montreux begonnen. Der syrische Außenminister Walid al-Muallim hielt sich trotz einer Ermahnung von UN-Generalsekretär Ban Ki Moon nicht an die vorgeschriebene Redezeit. Er sprach am Mittwoch statt 10 Minuten mehr als 20 Minuten lang und sagte: «Nach drei Jahren des Leidens ist das mein gutes Recht.»

    In Syrien tobt seit 2011 ein Bürgerkrieg, bei dem mehr als 130 000 Menschen ums Leben kamen. Tausende werden vermisst. Die monatelang vorbereitete Konferenz soll ein Signal der Hoffnung auf eine politische Lösung des blutigen Konflikts in Syrien aussenden. Doch die Gräben zwischen den Bürgerkriegsparteien und den Staaten, die sie unterstützen, sind tief.

    An den Gesprächen nehmen Vertreter der Regierung in Damaskus, der Opposition und ausländische Diplomaten teil. Die eigentlichen Verhandlungen über einen Waffenstillstand und die Bildung einer Übergangsregierung sollen zwei Tage später am Sitz der Vereinten Nationen in Genf starten.............http://www.fr-online.de/syrien/syrien-friedenskonferenz-aggressive-stimmung-im-saal,24136514,25961882.html
    22/1/14

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