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Lavrov to vote on Syria resolution in UN SC if ballot held within 24 hrs

The foreign ministers of the other U.N. Security Council member states are also extending their stay in New York in order to take part in the ballot

UNITED NATIONS, September 27 (Itar-Tass) - Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov will vote on the Syrian chemical weapons resolution in the U.N. Security Council if the ballot is held within the next 24 hours, Russian Permanent Representative to the United Nations Vitaly Churkin said on Thursday, September 26.

“He [Lavrov] will be here,” Churkin said. “He was planning to be here at this time anyway. He may have to stay an hour or so longer,” he added.

The foreign ministers of the other U.N. Security Council member states are also extending their stay in New York in order to take part in the ballot.

Churkin said the U.N. Security Council might vote on the Syria chemical weapon resolution on Friday, September 27, if the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) adopted the relevant decision.

“We hope that the OPCW Executive Council will be able to make the decision within 24 hours as per its procedures. If this happens in The Hague tomorrow evening, that is, when it is 3 or 4 p.m. in New York, we will be able to vote [on the resolution] at 8 p.m.,” Churkin said.

The OPCW press service said earlier in the day that the date of the OPCW Executive Council’s meeting on Syria would be announced shortly.

Lavrov and U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said earlier in the day that the five permanent members of the U.N. Security Council - Russia, the United States, Great Britain, China, and France - had agreed the text of the resolution.

The resolution will be presented to the other ten members of the U.N. Security Council at its closed meeting now in progress at the U.N. headquarters in New York.

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