Transcript of Press Stakeout by UN Special Envoy for Syria, Staffan de Mistura

SdeM: Hello everybody. It has been a long meeting so forgive me. We will have only two questions, why? Because you will have plenty of opportunity asking me very deep questions at my last briefing in November, so today, I want to focus on what we have just said. So, let me repeat some bottom lines, because I think these are the ones we will like to make particularly public.

Point number one - you heard it probably, but I am repeating it - the Idlib MoU is terribly important, and it does provide - apart from an issue about security, and we hope a sustainable calm in the area, we talk about the Idlib area - also a unique window of opportunity for the establishment and the establishment and the launching of a credible and inclusive constitutional committee. This is and will remain our aim. Frankly our assessment is that if there is a political will there is no reason, no reason whatsoever, for the constitutional committee not to be able to be convened during the month of November - we are ready, we have done a lot of homework, ten months of preparation. The main reason, so far, for the delay in convening, in Geneva, the constitutional committee is frankly the difficulties that the government of Syria has to accept the current third list that has been prepared by the UN as per the Sochi declaration and resolution 2254. That’s why it is very important what we hope to be able to discuss in Damascus, I plan to discuss this pending issue in Damascus, during my forthcoming mission which will be taking place in few days’ time and report back, as you heard, to the Secretary-General and to the Security Council, if they ask me to do so - which seems to be the case.

Now regarding the personal issue - well I must tell you, you must have heard rumours for a long time, some of you have been doing it even very early, I always been indicating for the Secretary-General, my plans, for personal reasons - which is not health, it is family basically, so no speculation on that, I am touching wood, I am fine, and I am not even tired, because this has been giving me a lot of adrenalin this type of mission - it is actually because also there is a family, which deserves, after four years and four months, a little bit of attention. So, it was always the plan to do it sometime in November, but the whole idea is to actually try to do it in the most effective way. That is why according to the Secretary-General’s instructions, this month becomes a crucial month, and an opportunity to verify whether the constitutional committee has any chance to be, as we hope, a credible and sustainable idea, and that applies also, de facto, to the Sochi declaration.

So, I will, therefore, report in November to the Secretary-General and to the Security Council the status of the implementation of the constitutional committee in order to allow the Secretary-General and the Security Council to draw their own conclusions, hoping that that will also help my successor so that he or she will be able to start from a clear and clean ground. That’s why the briefing that I will be doing, God willing, in November at the Security Council, will be the most important one, certainly, of my mission.

Thank you, two questions:

Question: Special Envoy, thank you for doing so many stakeouts over your years in this office, in over four years, press conferences and in interviews, there seems to be one thing that is your mantra, there is no military solution, and yet in that time we have seen starvation used as a weapon, we have seen repression including torture, we have seen aerial bombardment including barrel bombs, we have seen repeated use of chemical weapons, the Syrian government clearly didn’t believe you and it now controls most of the country so it did have a military solution, didn’t it?

SdeM: You see, I work for the UN and I have been working for the UN now 48 years, in 22 wars or missions in conflict area, I have learnt one thing and I know that the Secretary-General feels strongly like this: what matters is winning the peace, and therefore it is so important to make sure that what we talk about, the political process, takes place - the alternative will be territorial gains but no sustainable peace, that is what you have to look at.

Question: My first question about the Syrian Permanent Representative said it in your face that his government will not allow the United Nations to interfere in the formation of the constitutional committee. My second question is about how frustrated you are personally that you did not achieve a breakthrough in this crisis? Thank you.

SdeM: So, the second question I will answer in the end of November, OK? Because one month can be a century in polices and we have seen that happening in so many times - and I am by definition, I have always been an optimist, so I will not comment on that, forgive me, but I will give you a chance to ask it again at the end of November. Regarding the other point, well, let’s wait and see what this visit and mission, which is going to be quite important, to the point that the Security Council wants to have a briefing immediately after, will be providing. The Sochi declaration speaks quite clearly about what is expected from the UN and from the Special Envoy and we intend to do our part to facilitate that.

Thank you so much we will be talking in November.


New York, 17 October 2017