Russian Foreign Minister, UN Special Envoy for Syria Meet in Moscow

Asharq Alawsat

July 23rd, 5:48am

Asharq Al-Awsat

Russian Foreign Minister holding talks with UN Special Envoy for Syria in Moscow - AFP

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and UN Special Envoy for Syria Geir Pedersen met in Moscow on Thursday, during which they discussed the humanitarian situation in Syria. During the meeting, Lavrov stressed the importance of adopting a new resolution regarding humanitarian issues in the war-torn country, hoping that such move would change the situation for the better. He also said the meeting was a good opportunity to exchange views on current developments, noting that the stability being witnessed in Syria is not accompanied by the international community’s efforts to solve the humanitarian issues and restore the infrastructure for the safe return of the Syrian refugees. However, he hoped that the situation would become better after implementing UN Security council resolution No. 2585 on extending the cross-border humanitarian aid operation to Syria. For his part, Pedersen affirmed the importance of the adoption of the resolution on humanitarian issues, stressing the need to reach a common understanding in this regard. "I think this is an extremely important issue and I can assure you that the UN family can do whatever we can, of course, to make sure for the full implementation also of that resolution. And I hope that we will be able to report on progress also on that." Pedersen also highlighted the economic situation in Syria, describing it as "extremely difficult." "Nine out of 10 are living in poverty. We have Syria divided more or less into three different areas. All of this needs to change." "But for this to change, we need to start on how we concretely can implement Security Council resolution 2254," he noted.

from Asharq AL-awsat https://english.aawsat.com/home/article/3094046/russian-foreign-minister-un-special-envoy-syria-meet-moscow