Syrian Arab News Agency S A N A
Washington, SANA – The United Nations Special Envoy for Syria Staffan de Mistura criticized Saudi Arabia for undermining the efforts of reaching a political solution for the crisis in Syria.
“Riyadh is complicating his efforts to find a diplomatic solution to the Syrian conflict by trying to tightly control which opposition groups will be allowed to participate in the negotiations,” Foreign policy Magazine quoted de Mistura as saying.
In his confidential January 18 briefing to the UN Security Council, which was obtained exclusively by Foreign Policy, de Mistura complained to the council that the Saudi-backed coalition and its “sponsors insist on the primacy and exclusivity of their role as ‘THE’ opposition delegation.”
He added that “Parties disagree not only on substance, but what concerns me is that they also question that the UN could or should exercise its discretion in ‘finalizing’ the opposition list.”
The diplomat appealed to the United States, Russia, and other key powers to back his troubled mediation efforts, saying he will not invite specific opposition groups to upcoming peace talks in Geneva unless the main outside players in the Syrian conflict all sign off on the list, according to Foreign Policy.
Council diplomats and other observers say that de Mistura’s remarks were aimed at prodding the United States to apply pressure on the Saudis to back down and allow a larger slate of opposition figures to participate in the talks.
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