Transcript of remarks by UN Special Envoy for Syria, Staffan de Mistura In his meeting with Iranian Senior Assistant to the Foreign Minister, Hossein Jaberi Ansari
SdeM: Thank you. For me it was very important to come to Tehran, Iran is a major player, and is heavily involved into the Syria issue, and now is the time for urgent consultations. Last week was a very dangerous week, and a very difficult week, and we have a priority now to bring the temperature internationally and regionally.
It was also a proof that when there is not an active political process, things happen on the ground that can get out of control. That’s why we believe, and we discuss, and will continue discussing how to make sure that what happened last week is not affecting negatively the political process. All three initiatives, Astana, Sochi and Geneva are affected by what happened last week. Because Astana is important, but it’s only three countries and has a very specific agenda, it is de-escalation - so we need to engage more countries. Sochi was very important, because it came out with a very important declaration for the establishment of a Constitutional Committee in Syria – but the Committee is not there yet. Geneva is very important because, the UN is the only place, and the only organization that can include a comprehensive political process based on a UN resolution - but, we need some movement on the political process, otherwise, we would see many incidents taking place and we don’t want that to take place. That’s why our discussions are very useful, and very timely, because Iran, and you in particular have very good advice on how we can promote a concrete, real political process, the alternative is very dangerous.
I think it’s time also for us to engage more actively the Government of Syria, because after all this is an issue that needs to be solved by the Syrians – we can help; an issue about sovereignty, international respect for their own integrity and the fact that any issue regarding constitution or elections need to be solved among the Syrians, with the UN help is even more valid today.
Khodahafez
Tehran, 21 April 2018