‘States must decide on Syria terror groups’

The United Nations (UN)’s special envoy for Syria says it is up to the major countries participating in the negotiations on the Syrian conflict to develop a shared view of what groups should be considered terrorist ones in the crisis-hit Arab country.

“As far as identifying terrorists, I have to abide to what the Security Council has decided, and the Council has identified two: ISIL (Daesh) and al-Nusra, and some organizations that are linked to al-Qaeda. I stop there and the rest is up the countries involved in the region and elsewhere,” Staffan de Mistura told reporters at UN headquarters in New York, the United States, on Tuesday.

“My job,” the UN envoy said, “is to make sure that big countries like the Russian Federation, Saudi Arabia and Iran come around the table and come up with a political process.”

“It’s time for those countries to pick up those challenges,” de Mistura added in reference to the task of coming up with a shared view on terrorist groups in Syria.
He added that there had been a decision to create three sub-groups on separate issues, namely terrorism – which he said “is a pending issue” – the opposition and the humanitarian crisis. The three working groups will begin meetings on Wednesday ahead of a second round of the talks on Syria in Vienna, Austria, on November 14.