UN envoy urges Obama, Putin to intervene in Syrian peace talks

The UN envoy for Syria called upon US President Obama and Russian President Vladimir Putin Thursday to help revive stalled peace talks, saying a recent spike in fighting has overshadowed the talks and put an increasingly feeble truce in “great danger.”

Staffan de Mistura told reporters that the cessation of hostilities agreed upon by the Western- and Saudi-backed opposition and envoys from President Bashar Assad’s government – backed by Moscow –“hangs by a thread.”

"I really fear that the erosion of the cessation is unraveling the fragile consensus around a political solution, carefully built over the last year," de Mistura said in his UN Security Council briefing. 

“Now I see parties reverting to the langue of a military solution or military option. We must ensure they do not see that as a solution or an option", Fox News quoted de Mistura as saying. 

De Mistura said he’s urging the leaders of the US and Russia to intervene because both presidents’ legacies are “linked to the success of what has been a unique initiative which started very well.”

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov largely spearheaded the current effort to end the five-year Syrian conflict.

De Mistura appealed not only for US-Russia intervention but for international support, calling in the Security Council briefing for another ministerial meeting of the International Syria Support Group "lest we lose the window of opportunity to reverse the negative downward spiral."

The International Syria Support Group includes 17 countries as well as the United Nations, Arab League, European Union and Organization of Islamic Cooperation.

Source : MENA