UN Security Council Unanimously Backs Syria Peace Plan

The resolution, which was drafted in an earlier meeting involving 20 foreign ministers, including US Secretary of State John Kerry and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, as well as their counterparts from Iran, Saudi Arabia and Turkey, leaves the principal points of division between these powers unresolved.

The Council called for a Syrian-led political process facilitated by the United Nations to establish within six months “credible, inclusive and non-sectarian governance”, setting a schedule for drafting a new constitution, with free and fair elections to be held within 18 months under United Nations supervision with all Syrians, including members of the diaspora, eligible to vote.

The resolution came after Russian Federation and the USA – two countries with very different views of the Syrian conflict and Syria’s president Bashar al-Assad – came to a mutual understanding.

Later on Friday, he added: “No one is sitting here today suggesting to anybody that the road ahead is a gilded path. It is complicated.

The resolution endorses discussions between the Syrian government and opposition starting in early January. Kerry said that ceasefire would not include ISIS. “The progress has not been as dramatic as we would like it to be….”

US Secretary of State John Kerry said after the council met there remain “sharp differences” on the fate of Mr Assad.

The United Nations Security Council on Friday unanimously adopted a resolution endorsing an global roadmap towards peace in Syria.

And the hope that the Syrian government and opposition groups to work together to jointly defeat the other crisis facing their country: the Islamic State.

The resolution has a schedule for changing the political situation in Syria.

The resulting agreement “gives the Syrian people a real choice, not between Assad and Daesh, but between war and peace”, Kerry said, using the Arabic acronym for the Islamic State extremists.

Those positions have required significant juggling on Kerry’s part.

At the meeting, UN Secretary-General Ban pledged that “the United Nations stands ready to undertake these important tasks”. We see the same dangers.

Yet the name “Assad” is not mentioned in the draft resolution, much less any demand that he be removed from office, or, for that matter, that he be defended against foreign powers seeking to overthrow him.

The resolution leaves open the question of whether other rebel groups can be designated as terrorist organizations and excluded from the cease-fire agreement.

Still, he said, diplomacy might yet ease the Syrian conflict and allow the world to “turn to our No. 1 focus”, the destruction of Islamic State. However, even as it signals a narrowing of the diplomatic gap between Washington and Moscow, it remains uncertain whether they will be able to cool the tempers of regional rivals, chiefly, Saudi Arabia and Iran. In a change in policy, administration officials said that eligible groups would be judged by their willingness to participate in a cease-fire. And who would lead the fight against the IS group and others, such as Al-Qaeda’s Al-Nusra Front, left outside of the peace process?

During the first two rounds of ministerial talks on Syria in Vienna, Iran reluctantly signed on to the road map, which is based on the so-called Geneva Communique from June 2012.

By contrast, British Ambassador Matthew Rycroft said the draft was “in good shape”.