UNITED NATIONS, June 28. /TASS/. Agreement on setting-up de-escalation zones in Syria, which Russia, Iran and Turkey reached in May, has obviously helped reduce the level of violence in Syria but progress is uneven the situation in the sphere of security is worsening in some regions of the country, the UN Secretary General’s special envoy for Syria said on Tuesday.
"Since the three guarantor states signed the de-escalation memorandum on 4 May in Astana, violence is clearly down," he said. "Hundreds of Syrian lives continue to be spared every week, and many towns have returned to some degree of normalcy."
De Mistura said along with it the tendency was not present everywhere. "In some areas, the fight and violence has been continuing and in fact intensified."
He laid out his vision of the most desirable course of events in the short term.
"As I see it, the ideal trajectory over the coming two weeks would be: progress in Astana on 4-5 July; then a further set of joint technical expert meetings with the opposition groups in the same week; and then a continued discussion and dialogue hopefully among international stakeholders (including at the G20 Summit in Hamburg on 7-8 July), in which Syria cannot be avoided as a subject," De Mistura said.
This layout will be highly supportive of both "the Astana de-escalation efforts and the intra-Syrian Geneva-based political process," he said.
"I hope that a combination of these elements would help shape an environment conducive for the next round of intra-Syrian talks in Geneva in the months to come, and bring us one step forward on the journey towards our shared goal of implementing the resolutions of this Council," De Mistura said.