For the second time in the last two weeks, the Security Council has shown that it is capable of reaching decisions on the crisis in Syria. After the Vienna agreement reached with Iran, it could now be possible to overcome the blockades of recent years. With the adoption of the statement by consensus today, the Security Council has made it clear that the suffering in Syria must, at last, be brought to an end, and that this can only be achieved with a political solution on the basis of the Geneva Communiqué.

All members of the Security Council have given clear expression to their support for UN Special Envoy de Mistura’s plans to prepare a political transition process with the help of intra‑Syrian thematic working groups and supported by an international contact group. This is a good and wise approach. We are in extremely close contact with de Mistura and actors in the region in order to help get this process under way. The world now expects the parties to the conflict to become actively involved in the negotiations.