France: UN efforts only path for Syria peace talks

France said yesterday that Russian attempts to push forward the Syrian peace talks should be within the framework of the United Nations (UN) efforts, which Paris said were the only appropriate forum to discuss a political solution to the civil war.

Having intervened decisively in the Syrian war in 2015 in support of President Bashar Al-Assad, Russia now hopes to build on the collapse of Daesh to launch a political process to end the six-year-old conflict.

On Tuesday, Russia invited 33 Syrian political parties to attend the so-called “Syrian Congress on National Dialogue” which it is organising in the Russian Black Sea resort of Sochi on 18 November. Opposition groups rejected Moscow’s offer to host talks.

“The Geneva process is the only appropriate and internationally-agreed forum to discuss political aspects of the Syrian crisis, especially for an election process and a new constitution,” French foreign ministry spokeswoman, Agnes Romatet-Espagne, told reporters in a daily briefing.

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Romatet urged all players, including Russia, to abide by UN resolution 2254, which lays the foundations for a future peaceful resolution of the conflict.

“International efforts, including those by Russia, must be within this framework,” she stressed.

France, a key supporter of the Syrian opposition High Negotiations Committee (HNC), has struggled to set up its own peace initiative that would see the permanent members of the UN Security Council come to an agreement on how to move stalled peace talks forward.