INFORMATION FOR THE MASS MEDIA
About the meeting of the Ministers of Foreign Affairs of permanent members of the UN Security Council withthe UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon and the Special Envoy toSyria L. Brahimi

On the 27 September, "on the sidelines" of the "ministerial week" of the 68th Session of the UN General Assembly,a meeting was held by the Russian Minister of Foreign Affairs S.V. Lavrov, the U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, the Ministers of Foreign Affairs of the United Kingdom W. Hague, of China Wang Yi and of France L.Fabius with the UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon and the Special Envoy to Syria L. Brahimi.

They discussed issues connected with holding the international conference on Syria "Geneva-2".

All the participants were unanimous in the view that the adoption of the UN Security Council resolution on chemical weapons in Syria opens the door to reinvigorate efforts for political regulation in Syria. The Geneva communiqué of 30 June 2012 should become the basis for this. The conference aims to launch a direct inter-Syrian dialogue to determine the future state of the country.

It was agreed to hold this forumsometime in mid-November of this year.For this purpose in the near future L. Brahimi should activate the work to be done with the Government of Syria, the opposition and all interested parties.

S.V. Lavrov strongly emphasized the need to ensure that the opposition is represented in such a format that it will be able to express, during the international conference,the approaches of the widest possible range of Syrian political forces within the dialogue with the existing SAR Government, in order to achieve genuine national agreement.

It was agreed to continue contacts and coordinated work to convene the conference.

28 September 2013