Iraq News

New envoy in Syria to revive UN mediation efforts

The new special UN envoy to Syria began his first trip to Damascus on Tuesday (January 15th), facing the daunting task of rekindling moribund peace talks and succeeding where his three predecessors failed, AFP reported.

Norway's Geir Pedersen, who replaces Staffan de Mistura, is the fourth negotiator to have been appointed UN special envoy to Syria since the civil war broke out in 2011.

The seasoned diplomat, 63, was seen entering a Damascus hotel and is expected to hold talks with senior officials, although no official programme for his visit was published.

Pedersen simply said on social media that he was "looking forward to productive meetings here".

Officials in the government of President Bashar al-Assad set the tone for the new envoy's tenure shortly after news of his appointment in October last year.

"Syria will co-operate with the new UN envoy Geir Pedersen provided he avoids the methods of his predecessor," Deputy Foreign Minister Faisal al-Meqdad said, quoted by al-Watan newspaper.

Pedersen has not yet spoken publicly about his mission and it remains unclear what his approach will be.

De Mistura, who announced in October he was resigning for "purely personal reasons", ended his four-year tenure with an abortive push for the formation of a committee tasked with drawing up a post-war constitution for Syria.

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