UN Secretary General's Special Envoy for Syria Geir Pedersen . File photoUN, May 10.A political resolution of the conflict in Syria is still far away, said Geir Pedersen, Special Representative of the UN Secretary General for Syria, speaking at the annual conference of Syrian donors «Brussels-6». The text of his speech was distributed by the UN press service. «Let me be frank. We are far from .. political solution,” Pedersen said. He recalled that the small group of the Syrian Constitutional Committee will meet again in Geneva at the end of this month. «The previous seven rounds have not produced the results we would like. But I hope that this upcoming round can at least bring some incremental progress,» the Special Representative said.
U.S. to provide more than $800 million in humanitarian aid to Syria Pedersen said he urged all members of the upcoming meeting to approach this session with a mindset of compromise and constructive engagement, «and to focus on things that the Syrians can start to agree on.» «Of course, I hope that in the long run the Committee would help negotiate a new social contract, help heal the wounds of a devastating conflict, but even if the Syrians were to agree on the substance of a constitutional reform or a new constitution, it could not unfold within Syria in a meaningful way, under the conditions that are emerging today.» Pedersen believes that work is needed to create a safe, calm, neutral environment inside Syria, starting with confidence-building measures, as required by UNSCR 2254. “In this spirit, I have sought to identify areas where consensus on a number of mutual confidence-building measures that could be take place in parallel, step by step,» he said. The Syria Donors Conference is traditionally held without the participation of official Damascus, with which the EU does not maintain relations. This year, the event is also held without the participation of Russia, which led to a change in its format. Previously, the UN and the European Union co-chaired the conference. However, this time the European Union did not invite Russia, as a result of which the UN could not act as a co-chair of the forum. The EU Council had previously imposed sanctions against the Syrian government, the validity of which is extended annually. Borrell has repeatedly said that the EU will not lift sanctions against Syria and will not help reconstruction until the transition of power there begins. At the same time, the EU claims that the sanctions do not prevent it from being the main donor to Syria. In particular, the EU provides assistance to Syrian refugees in neighboring states of Syria. The previous conference on Syria «Brussels-5» was held at the end of March last year. Last year, the conference participants promised to allocate 5.3 billion euros in grants and 5.9 billion in soft loans to help Syrian refugees in 2021-2022. Damascus said it would not accept a conference on Syria in Brussels without the participation of a delegation from the Syrian government, and the chosen format violates the fundamentals of the UN charter. Russia is no longer blamed
