(Newswire.net — December 19, 2015) — A rare example of unity has taken place in the UN Security Council: 17 members of the Security Council unanimously agreed to start a peace process in Syria.
“This council is sending a clear message to all concerned that the time is now to stop the killing in Syria and lay the groundwork for a government that the long- suffering people of that battered land can support”, said John Kerry, US Secretary of State, after the voting took place.
The room for resolution was made after the recent US-Russia talks in the Kremlin, last week. The two countries differ in views of what is going to become of Syria, including the fate of Bashar al- Assad, the current Syrian President. He is Russia’s great ally, but the West insists that he must step down. Since the matter of his fate hasn’t been resolved, it wasn’t mentioned in the text of the resolution.
“We are under no illusions about the obstacles that exist. There obviously remain sharp differences within the international community, especially about the future of President Assad”, added John Kerry.
Sergei Lavrov, Russian foreign minister also commented on the resolution: “This is a clear response to attempts to impose a solution from the outside on Syrians on any issues, including those regarding its president”.
The resolution should be adopted within a month’s time and it should provide the council with options regarding monitoring a ceasefire, talks between government and opposition and potential elections.
The agreed time for the beginning of the talks between the government and opposition is early January. What the resolution also includes is continuation of destruction of ISIS, which still controls a big part of Syrian territory.
Philip Hammond, the British foreign secretary said: “This process necessarily involves the departure of Bashar al- Assad, not only for moral reasons because of the destruction that he has unleashed on his own people, but also for practical reasons, because it will never be possible to bring peace and unity to Syria as long as he remains in office. But we must and will protect the institutions that are necessary for the future governance of Syria and that will be possible with a representative transitional governing body”.
Within the next couple of months it should be clear whether the peace process is working or not. All diplomats worked very hard on the resolution and if everybody does their piece of the work, the process should not be endangered.
The conflict in Syria has been going on for five years now and more than 300,000 people were killed. Four million people left the country which made a major refugee crisis in Europe.
UN Secretary General Ban KI- moon said: “Thousands of people have been forced to live in grass and weeds. This is outrageous. The people of Syria have suffered enough”.
If everything goes smoothly, the elections should take place within 18 months. The elections should be “free and fair” and they should include Syria’s diaspora, allowing the people who evaded the conflict to participate in the elections. The ministers of 17 countries who worked and agreed on the resolution should meet next month for further consultation. One of the crucial problems to be resolved is to make a dinstinction and decision on which groups in Syria are terrorist organizations and which are the regular opposition. This matter should be resolved in order to make an opposition negotiation team.
It will be a demanding task to determine who is who in Syria, but it seems that Jordan is going to lead a group of countries who are going to tackle the problem.