UNITED NATIONS, July 10, /ITAR-TASS/. Russia supports the appointment of Staffan de Mistura as the new U.N. representative for Syria, Russian Permanent Representative to the United Nations Vitaly Churkin said.

“This is a very good candidate. We support him,” he said.

His appointment will be officially announced during U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon’s news conference scheduled for 16:30 EST Wednesday, July 9.

The post became vacant on May 31, 2014 following the resignation of the Joint Special Envoy of the United Nations and the League of Arab States for the Syrian Crisis, Lakhdar Brahimi, who had held it for almost two years, having replaced Kofi Annan.

De Mistura has worked in different positions in the United Nations for 40 years and served as the U.N. Secretary-General’s representative in Iraq and Afghanistan. His last position was deputy foreign minister of Italy when the government was headed by technocrat Mario Monti.