UNSC to focus this month on Syrian situation

Focus of the United Nations Security Council this month will be issues related to Syria, said Ambassador Raimonda Murmokaite of Lithuania and Security Council President for the month of February.

She said that the 15 members will hold informal consultations on the chemical weapons situation in Syria, and will hear a briefing by Sigrid Kaag, Head of the Joint Mission of the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) and the UN, on the status of their elimination.

Diplomats said the Council may issue at the end of today’s meeting a US-drafted press statement which calls on Syria to immediately comply with its obligations under resolution 2118 which required the verification and destruction of its chemical weapons by June 30 this year.

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon conceded in his most recent report to the Council that there are delays and that Syria needs to do more to meet the deadline. But he also said that the delays are not “insurmountable.”