All news

UN Secretary General to meet with UNSC Permanent Members Friday

However, the exact time of the session is not specifyed
Photo EPA/ITAR-TASS
Photo EPA/ITAR-TASS

UNITED NATIONS, August 30 (Itar-Tass) - UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon will meet with the diplomats from the Permanent Members of the Security Council (Russia, China, UK, USA, and France) on Friday to discuss the situation in Syria, a diplomatic source at the UN headquarters told Itar-Tass.

Deputy official representative of UN Secretary General Farhan Haq confirmed that the session might take place, however, he didn’t specify the time when it would be held. “Secretary General is going to meet with representatives of several UN member countries. I suppose among them will be officials from the ‘five’,” he said.

ITAR-TASS InfographicsDue to escalation of the Syrian conflict Ban Ki-moon was forced to interrupt his European tour. In New York he will be waiting for the arrival of UN inspectors that investigate the alleged use of chemical weapons in Syria. They will report to UN Secretary General on their conclusions, and Ban Ki-moon, in his turn, will bring these results to the notice of the UN Security Council.

Permanent members of the Security Council, each of which has the right of blocking resolutions on any issues, gathered on Thursday to hold the second in two days session and discussed the proposed by western countries draft resolution that opens the way to military intervention in Syria. Russia and China are unalterably opposed to applying force. According to a source close to the matter from the UN headquarters, the participants of the meeting failed to conciliate the different points of view. The source said that each part remained unconvinced.

After the consultations of the UN Security Council members the UK announced its refusal to take part in the possible military operation in Syria. However, Washington authorities stated that they would take their own decision in compliance with US interests.

Some UN headquarters employees express an opinion that the White House might attack Syria without voting in the Security Council. As one of the diplomats told Itar-Tass, the US may deem sufficient the confirmation of UN inspectors that chemical weapons were used in Syria. The very intervention will be likely justified by the need of a harsh answer to the humanitarian crisis, as it was done in Kosovo in 1999.

Washington’s unwilling to strive for UN Security Council approval in also confirmed by the words of State Department deputy spokeswoman Marie Harf. In a briefing with journalists on Wednesday she repeated several times that there were no plans to bring up for vote the draft resolution at the moment.