Germany says obstacles remain for Syria after U.N. backs peace process

The UN security council unanimously agrees a resolution endorsing an global roadmap for a peace process in Syria.

The source also said that if the Syrian people decide that President Bashar al-Assad must go, then he really will have to leave.

“There must be safeguards regarding the exit of Bashar al-Assad”, Fabius said, adding that reconciliation between Syrians and the state would remain “unattainable” for long as Assad remained in power.

Russian Federation has been resisting any ouster of Assad during the transition, saying they believe that the ultimate future government of Syria should be up to the Syrians themselves, and not to be decided by the worldwide community.

“As the first resolution to focus on the political path to resolving the crisis, this marks a very important step on which we must build”, Ban told the Council.

The UN Security Council threw its unanimous support Friday behind a plan to end Syria’s brutal civil war by summoning rebels and the regime to the negotiating table.

The Syrian war, which is heading towards its fifth year, has killed more than 250,000 people and displaced millions more, the United Nations says.

Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif, who attending the morning meeting in NY, charged “outside actors” with trying to impose “preconditions” on the Syrian people.

The U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, Samantha Power, told reporters that the five veto-wielding council members did not yet have an agreed draft to present to the 15-nation body for approval on Friday. Mr Kerry noted that 80 per cent of Russian airstrikes were hitting opposition groups fighting Mr Assad, not the forces of the Islamic State extremist group.

This would include, but may not be limited to, the Islamic State group and the Al-Qaeda-linked Al-Nusra Front.

One of the most incongruous parts of the resolution was that the government of Syria was one of its co-sponsors.

Convened by US Secretary of State John Kerry, Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and UN Syria envoy Staffan de Mistura, 17 foreign ministers gathered at a NY hotel.

The resolution approved Friday endorsed a plan devised by diplomats from 20 countries in Vienna last month.

Talks between Syria’s warring government and opposition should begin in early January.

Stressing on the importance of an actual government that has policing capacity and structure at areas in Syria that now aren’t governed, Obama said the long-term U.S. goal was to to stabilise lawless regions so that IS does not have any safe haven. That language was created in Vienna in November by Mr Kerry, who is betting that if Syrians around the world can participate in the vote, Mr Assad will not be able to win.

They said Russian Federation had indicated it had no problem with the eventual ouster of Assad at the end of a transition period, though it would not admit that publicly.

“They want the solution, what they call a political solution, to be ended with the changing of this state, getting rid of this president or depose him, and so on”.