Thank you very much Mr President. Thank you to Staffan [de
Mistura] and his team for briefing us today.
Mr President, I find it incredible that we should have to
rehearse for the benefit of the Syrian authorities why the
UN needs to be involved in Syria.
It isn’t a matter of national sovereignty that there are
over a million refugees.
It isn’t a matter of national sovereignty that there are
400,000 dead in Syria.
This is a threat to international peace and security.
It is right that the UN is involved. The UN has been
involved on the humanitarian side. It’s involved on the
refugee side. It’s involved in the health side. It is
absolutely front and centre right that it should be
involved in the political process.
So I will go further than you, Staffan; you talked about a
serious challenge. I think we actually face a grave
challenge. We face a grave challenge to the way members of
the United Nations cooperate with the United Nations. And
as my American and French colleagues have said, we face a
grave challenge in terms of the situation on the ground.
And there’s now additionally enormous doubt over what Sochi
was and what it now represents. Either Russia has given the
UN and this Council assurances it has proved too weak to
deliver on, or it was all a cynical smokescreen designed to
divert attention and energy while Russia, Syria and Iran
prosecuted the military campaign. And that military
campaign has been brought to a halt only by the
international outrage at the threat to three million
civilians in Idlib, and then the Turks bravely stepped in
and brokered an agreement designed to protect those
civilians.
So I think we need five things in support of what my French
and American colleagues have said. We need clarity on the
status of the Sochi agreement and these new proposals from
the Syrian authorities. What do they mean? What does
Russia, what do Iran think about them? We need clarity on
what steps need to be taken by all the players before 19
November when Staffan you’ve offered to come back and brief
the Council, and before the end of November when you step
down. We need clarity that Russia - as a P5 member, an
Astana guarantor, and the Sochi convener - along with Syria
and Iran - will work constructively and tirelessly with the
UN.
All UN members have a responsibility to support you,
Staffan, as the Secretary-General’s Special Envoy. We need
to hear today that that promise of constructive, tireless,
dedicated engagement to bring this conflict to an end is
there. We need the agreement on Idlib to hold. We need that
opportunity that others have mentioned to be seized. We
need the Constitutional Committee to be convened and I
share the views of my American and French colleagues on
that. We need humanitarian access to be improved, and we
need 2254 to be upheld. The Council needs to come together
to support the political process. Without the political
process, this dreadful conflict will never truly end,
whatever happens militarily on the ground.
We look forward to further reports after the international
meetings in the coming days, but I do believe Mr President
that we must hear today from all Council members that they
will support the UN as it tries its very best to move the
political process forward.
Thank you.
