At G20 Summit, Ban, UN-Arab League Envoy Push For Political Solution to Syrian Crisis
New York, Sep 5 2013 - With the world focused on the possible use of chemical weapons in Syria, United Nations
Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and Envoy Lakhdar Brahimi reiterated to leaders attending the St. Petersburg for the Group
of 20 (G20) summit the need to “push even harder” to for a political solution to end the bloodshed in the war-torn
Middle Eastern country.
Speaking to UNTV ahead of the start of the conference, Mr. Ban said “the current situation caused by the allegation of
chemical weapons use and deteriorating humanitarian situation in Syria urgently requires world leaders to focus their
political will to address this issue”.
Mr. Brahimi, the Joint Special Representative of the UN and the League of Arab States for Syrian, arrived in the Russian
city earlier today at Mr. Ban’s request.
The UN chief said that he had asked Mr. Brahimi to join him in St. Petersburg to press for the early convening of an international meeting on Syria to be
held in Geneva with participation of senior Russian, United States and UN officials.
Mr. Brahimi said that the Syrian crisis had reached such an “urgent” stage that the Secretary-General thought it might
be one of the questions to be addressed either by the G20 itself or on the margins of the summit.
“I’m sure it would be taken up in all the meetings the Secretary-General is going to have,” Mr. Brahimi told UNTV,
adding that Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov might organize a special meeting on Syria.
A UN spokesperson in New York today said the Secretary-General is attending the opening sessions of the summit. At the
working dinner, Mr. Ban is expected to brief world leaders on developments in Syria. In his remarks, the
Secretary-General is expected to outline the work of the UN chemical weapons investigation team and to explain why he
asked Mr. Brahimi to join him in St. Petersburg.
Meanwhile, the biomedical and environmental samples collected by the by Swedish scientist Dr. Åke Sellström and his team
at sites in Syria where chemical weapons were allegedly used on 21 August, had been sent to four laboratories in Europe.
Mr. Ban has called for the team to expedite the process, but to also be given every opportunity to complete its task,
noting that the UN investigation is “uniquely placed to independently establish the facts in an objective and impartial
manner” and to conduct its work strictly according to internationally recognized standards.
Ahead of the start of the Summit, Mr. Ban met on its sidelines with the President of the Republic of Korea, Park Geun-hye. In addition to discussing developments in
Syria, Mr. Ban and Ms. Park discussed the Korean peninsula, in specific, ROK’s proposed world peace park in the
Demilitarized Zone.
Mr. Ban also thanked Ms. Park for the country’s $6 million contribution to the UN World Health Organization (WHO) to
assist children in the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK).
In a meeting with the President of Kazakhstan, Nursultan Nazarbayev, Mr. Ban commended Kazakhstan’s long-standing constructive
cooperation with the UN and the role it plays internationally in the context of nuclear non-proliferation and religious
tolerance.
He and President Nazarbayev also discussed the situation in Syria, as well as the important roles played by the
Organization, as well as Afghanistan and regional cooperation, on water management.
Also today, Mr. Ban discussed the situation of human rights in Russia with Ombudsman Vladimir Lukin. Mr. Ban said he
appreciated the Ombudsman’s honest and useful evaluation of human rights challenges in the Russian Federation.
They discussed a number of the recommendations that arose from the most recent Universal Periodic Review, notably
relating to the role of civil society, and the rights of people with disabilities and of the lesbian, gay, bi-sexual and
transgender (LGBT) community.
The Geneva-based Council’s Universal Periodic Review subjects each country’s human rights record to a State-led peer
review on the basis of information submitted by the country concerned, UN entities, civil society and other
stakeholders.
The Secretary-General encouraged the Ombudsman, together with the Russian authorities, to implement all recommendations.
Mr. Ban is at the G20 to also focus international attention on long-term global challenges, including the achievement of
the eight anti-poverty targets known as the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), strengthening global economic recovery,
and achieving a sustainable future.
“Putting off those challenges until tomorrow will only make them even more difficult and expensive to solve,” Mr. Ban
said yesterday remarks at St. Petersburg State University.
The MDGs will be a focus at the high-level gathering of the General Assembly later this month at the UN Headquarters in
New York.
Mr. Ban is expected to speak about the MDGs and the post-2015 sustainable development tomorrow in remarks to the G20.
For more details go to UN News Centre at http://www.un.org/news
ENDS