Transcription des remarques de l'Envoyé spécial des Nations Unies pour la Syrie, M. Staffan de Mistura, suite à la réunion avec le Ministre des affaires étrangères Russe, M. Sergey Lavrov (en anglais)

SdeM: Thank you Minister Lavrov, dear friend - this meeting is very timely we are at a time where humanitarian needs in Syria are becoming even more pressing, humanitarian access for the UN to reach those in need is becoming urgent, and the protection of civilians all over Syria, so that is an important aspect that we would like certainly to address.

The other one is the follow up to the political process - so I look forward to discussing what you just mentioned, how to make sure that what was a very important declaration in Sochi becomes a concrete implementation in Geneva, and how to make sure that Astana, with its own mandate about de-escalation, Sochi with its own product, which was a declaration regarding, in particular, among other things, the Constitutional Committee - all fit into the Geneva political process within [resolution] 2254.

I think the timing is really appropriate. We were waiting, and still are waiting for the moment when the political process becomes concrete - and I hope this will be an opportunity in that direction, so thank you.

May I add one point - I would like to express the condolences that the UN feels, and we as friends and colleagues feel, for the tragedy that took place recently inside the Russian Federation to many civilians.

SdeM: Thank you Minister Lavrov. Yes, this was a timely occasion for comparisons. For us - for the Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, and myself and my team - the priority has been in the last few weeks is civilian people. In Damascus, in eastern Ghouta, in Douma, in Homs, in Afrin in Raqqa, everywhere where there has been suffering and civilians are still under pressure.

So the priority of our discussion for us today, was to discuss how to increase the access of humanitarian aid. The UN is ready, the UN is prepared, we are actually preparing all our capacity in Damascus and elsewhere, in order to actually reach now the civilian population in eastern Ghouta and hopefully in Douma, as much as possible. We need access and we also need the possibility for our people and our convoys to be there. We discussed that both with Minister Lavrov and Minister Shoigu - and I think we have some common ideas on how to increase the UN access on that.

The question about protection of civilians is very important, the people need to feel that when they are evacuating that they can have the sufficient protection and not having any punishment if they were associated physically, geographically with an area where the opposition was. And I think that (inaudible) subject we discussed about how to ensure that Russia can guarantee that, together with, perhaps, UN presence, if we are allowed to do so - we are willing to do so.

Now regarding resolution 2254 - yes, now it is time we have gone through humanitarian access, we need to be faster on that together, but there is no reason that there should not be a political process in the horizon for the Syrian people.

So Astana has a role - and that is de-escalation and detainees - we are looking forward to seeing more of that taking place - even in the future summit that will take place in [Ankara].

Sochi has had an important and crucial role in its own declaration and the announcement of the constitutional commission. All that is meant as - and Minister Lavrov rightly said - in order to support the Geneva-based political process. We need to give it an acceleration, and we look forward to being able to do so together because the time for a political process is now more than ever, bearing in mind that the integrity, sovereignty and national integrity of Syria are crucial and we need to accelerate, therefore, a political process.

Thank you.


Moscow, 29 March 2018