Security Council maintains its role in Syria’s conflict settlement

The UN Security Council maintains its role in making efforts towards settlement of the Syrian crisis, Russia’s deputy envoy in the UN Alexander Pankin told Itar-Tass on Friday. He commented statements of some countries’ diplomats saying that the Security Council had been stalled on Syria’s issue, which should now be resolved at a higher level, including the G20 summit in St. Petersburg. “This role cannot be allocated to the G20 by definition. They (delegates to the summit) can discuss this issue in some format, but the Security Council will retain its role as it has done this before. It is fixed in the organization’s Charter,” Pankin said. Ambassador Gary Quinlan, representative of Australia and President of the UN Security Council, said this week G20 leaders should engage in resolving Syria’s crisis. US ambassador to the United Nations, Samantha Power, said on Thursday she saw no opportunity for finding a mutually advantageous decision on Syria inside the Security Council accusing Russia of this.