UN Adopts Resolution on Syria Peace Process


UN Adopts Resolution on Syria Peace Process

TEHRAN (Tasnim) – The United Nations Security Council unanimously approved a resolution endorsing an international roadmap for a Syria peace process.

The five permanent Security Council members which have veto powers on Friday had agreed on the text of the draft resolution prior to the vote, in which the remaining 10 members also gave their approval, Reuters reported.

The text calls for the UN to present the council with options for monitoring a ceasefire within one month of adoption of the resolution. It also backed a timeline previously agreed in Vienna for talks between the government on a unity government and opposition, and eventual elections.

The talks between Syria's government and opposition should begin in early January, the draft said.

The deal on the draft resolution came on the sidelines of a meeting of the International Syria Support Group at New York's Palace Hotel.

The roadmap, which also calls for a nationwide ceasefire that would not apply to ISIL, Nusra Front and some other militant groups, was worked out in two rounds of ministerial talks in Vienna.

Diplomats said the main problem in the negotiations on the resolution involved Russian and Iranian concerns about how to refer to a bloc of opposition groups that would join UN-led peace talks with the Syrian government set to begin in January.

The New York Friday meeting comes following two rounds of talks held in the Austrian capital of Vienna on October 30 andNovember 14 to discuss settlement of the ongoing crisis in Syria.

The participants agreed in the last negotiations to meet again in “approximately one month” to review progress toward a ceasefire and the start of a political process in the violence-scarred country.

Influential countries like Russia, the United States, Iran, Saudi Arabia, and Turkey, as well as representatives from the Syrian government and opposition groups have taken part in the recent negotiations on Syria.

Syria has been gripped by civil war since March 2011 with Takfiri terrorists from various groups, including the Daesh, currently controlling parts of it.

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