UN Syria envoy calls for ceasefire in northeast border area

Wed, Oct 16, 2019
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Foreign

The UN Special Envoy for Syria on Wednesday called for an immediate end to hostilities along its border with Turkey, where Ankara launched an assault and Damascus advanced its forces after U.S. troops pulled out.

Geir Pedersen raised Turkey’s week-old incursion into northeastern Syria in talks with Damascus Syria’s Foreign Minister, Walid al-Moualem.

The UN was extremely concerned about the humanitarian consequences of the crisis and called for an “immediate cessation of hostilities”.

Moualem was quoted by state news agency SANA as saying Turkey’s aggression was prolonging the crisis in Syria and undermining efforts to secure a political settlement.

Pedersen’s trip had been planned to discuss preparations for the first meeting of Syria’s Constitutional Committee, due to take place in Geneva on Oct. 30.

A congress convened by Russia, a leading ally of Syrian President Bashir al-Assad has asked the UN to form the 150-member committee to draft a new constitution after many rounds of talks to end the war had failed. (NAN)

-Oct 16, 2019 @16:42 GMT

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