Brussels, 22/01/2013 (Agence Europe) - The EU has taken note of the Arab League's proposal on 21 January of calling on the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) to meet immediately in order to adopt a binding resolution on a ceasefire in Syria, the press service from the European External Action Service (EEAS) told EUROPE on 22 January. The EEAS press service said that “the EU has consistently called on all parties to stop violence”, adding that this proposal is in line with the press release from Geneva and the work of the special envoy, Lakhdar Brahimi. “The EU continues to call on all members of the UNSC to uphold their responsibilities and to urgently address the situation in Syria in all aspects”, the EEAS press service added.
Although in the view of Arab League Secretary General Nabil al-Arabi, none of the contacts taken by Brahimi have yet ended successfully with any glimmer of hope for putting the crisis on the path to a regulation, the EEAS recalled that the EU repeated its support for Brahimi “in finding a political solution, considered as the only viable way to resolve the Syrian crisis”. It added that the EU looks forward to hearing the briefing that Brahimi will make to the UNSC on 29 January. Bahimi will also be at the Foreign Affairs Council on 18 February.
The EEAS will be represented at a suitable level at the meeting of the national Syrian coalition in Paris on Monday 28 January, it told EUROPE. This meeting will bring together the main leaders of the coalition and their main support. Over a hundred countries have recognised this coalition that the EU designates as the “legitimate representative of the Syrian people”. The coalition, which came together in Istanbul on 20 January, postponed the decision to form a government in exile until it obtained the support of the free Syrian army and the international community, after it had consulted them. (CG/transl.fl)