UN envoy calls for Syrian political talks
A top United Nations official called Wednesday for renewed attempts to reach a political solution to the country’s nearly 12-year-old civil conflict in the wake of last month’s devastating earthquake.
Geir Pedersen, the U.N. special envoy for Syria, told reporters that the deadly 7.8 magnitude quake that struck Turkey and Syria last month had served as a “wake-up call to the world that the Syrian tragedy is far from over.”
“We need to take this attention and see if it can help us to unlock progress” in the political process, he said.
The earthquake, which killed more than 50,000 people, including about 6,000 in Syria, has already prompted some political concessions both from the government in Damascus and its opponents.
The Syrian government agreed to open additional border crossings for international aid to cross from Turkey into rebel-held northwest Syria, while the United States and European countries relaxed some of their sanctions on Damascus.
“We need the same logic that was applied on the humanitarian front to be applied at the political level,” Pedersen said at a news conference in Geneva.
Pedersen called for a “Syrian-led and owned political process facilitated by the United Nations” including a return to meetings of a committee formed to draft a new constitution for Syria, with representatives of both the government and opposition.
Reconstruction of areas damaged in the civil war has largely been on hold in the absence of a political solution. The country’s infrastructure is now further damaged by the earthquake. The World Bank estimated last week that Syria sustained an estimated $5.1billion in damages from the quake.
Asked about the prospects for postearthquake reconstruction, Pedersen noted the response is still focused on immediate humanitarian needs, but acknowledged that in later stages there will be a “need to address some of the issues that are more linked to the political side of the of the process.”
“Hopefully we will be able to facilitate that,” he said.