Statement on behalf of the UN Special Envoy for Syria, Staffan de Mistura

Arabic version

Russian version

Special Envoy de Mistura received an invitation from the Government of Kazakhstan, on behalf of the Islamic Republic of Iran, the Russian Federation and the Republic of Turkey – the guarantors of the de-escalation agreement – to participate in the high-level meeting in Astana on 28 and 29 November 2018.

The Special Envoy, in consultation with the Secretary-General, accepted to be in Astana where, within the framework of the Geneva process and in accordance with Security Council resolution 2254 (2015), he will chair a meeting with senior representatives of Iran, Russia and Turkey in their capacity as the conveners of the Sochi meeting of January 2018. This meeting will seek to accelerate a concrete outcome on the establishment of a constitutional committee – taking note in particular of the Joint Statement on Syria issued in Istanbul on 27 October 2018 by the Presidents of the Republic of Turkey, the French Republic, the Russian Federation and the Chancellor of the Federal Republic of Germany that called for establishing and early convening, considering the circumstances, by the end of the year of the constitutional committee in Geneva that would achieve the constitutional reform.

The presence of the Special Envoy in Astana will be in a spirit of not leaving any stone unturned and maximising the chances of the Istanbul Joint Statement to be upheld. He has offered clear proposals and the full range of creative ways forward. He strongly appeals to the three countries to do what needs to be done now to support the UN-facilitated political process. He will report on these consultations to the Secretary-General and in due course to the Security Council.


Geneva, 27 November 2018