LOC23:50
20:50 GMT
NEW YORK, Oct 7 (KUNA) -- Despite Joint Special Representative for Syria
Lakhdar Brahimi's skepticism to Arab and French media that Geneva II Peace
Conference on Syria would take place in mid-November as originally announced,
UN Chief Ban Ki-moon is firmly "determined" to make it happen.
"The Secretary General continues to believe that this can take place in
mid-November and it is his firm determination to seek to make that happen,"
his spokesman Martin Nesirky told the daily press briefing on Monday.
He said "everyone knows that it is not easy. It is going to be difficult to
bring the sides to the table (in Geneva II) ... The intention is very clear:
that we want to push for mid-November ... That work continues to try to bring
a single opposition delegation to the table" besides the government delegation.
He admitted that there are "very bitter" rivalries and divisions between
the opposition and the authorities in Syria. "Therefore, it is obvious that it
is not going to be easy to make that happen. But he (Ban) is determined to
work hard to make that happen, and that is his intention."
Ban announced to the media on September 27, after meeting the Foreign
Ministers of the Security Council's permanent members, in the presence of
Brahimi, that they are aiming to hold the proposed Geneva II Conference in
mid-November.
Geneva II Conference is supposed to implement the communique adopted by the
participants in June 2012 and which charts a political transition that would
put an end to the conflict in Syira.
In a related matter, and in answer to a question about the deadlines for
the team of experts to finish the job of dismantling Syria's chemical weapons,
Nesirky said they were "tight."
He noted that the destruction of the banned weapons and the related
facilities is being carried out by the Syrians, but supervised and monitored
by the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) team, with
the UN support. (end)
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KUNA 072350 Oct 13NNNN