UN chief: conference on Syrian settlement to take place “very soon”

PanARMENIAN.Net - After consultations with UN Security Council permanent members, a conference on the Syrian settlement will take place “very soon,” possibly, at the beginning of June, UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said on Sunday, May 19, according to RIA Novosti.

“As I have been asked by the parties to convene this conference on the auspices of the United Nations, I’m now actively engaging with all the parties I have spoken to: the US, Russia, the United Kingdom, France, China, all other key parties,” Ban Ki-moon said during his visit to the Moscow office of RIA Novosti international news agency.

“We are still trying to look at a window possibility in early June but this is a matter of still further consultations,” he said, adding he was confident the conference would be held soon.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Wednesday after a meeting with US Secretary of State John Kerry that an international conference on Syria at a ministerial level may be held in Geneva if both sides of the Syrian conflict agreed to participate in the event.

“We share the opinion that this conference should be held in Geneva,” Lavrov said.

The conference would be a follow-up to last year’s international meeting in Geneva that drafted a peace roadmap for Syria.