UN Special Envoy of the Secretary-
General for Syria Staffan de Mistura
gives a press conference during the
Intra-Syrian peace talks at the European
headquarters of the United Nations in
Geneva, on March 3, 2017. / AFP
PHOTO / PHILIPPE DESMAZES
Middle East
Arab-Kurdish
Administration in
Raqqa following
ISIS
PAULA ASTIH
58 mins ago
17
Beirut, Paris, New York – An Arab-
Kurdish administration could see the light
in Raqqa and its suburbs after their
liberation from ISIS, while the
international coalition are overseeing the
training of a local police force to perform
security missions in the city after its
liberation, a Kurdish official said on
Saturday.
The official, who wished to remain
unidentified, told Asharq Al-Awsat that
“preparations were under way to form a
Raqqa civilian council, police forces, and
municipal councils in anticipation of
Raqqa’s liberation to prevent chaos in
the city.”
Meanwhile, Kurdish official Awas Ali, who
comes from Raqqa province told Reuters
that the civilian council in the city would
consist mainly of Arabs, in line with
Raqqa’s demography, but also include
Kurds and other ethnic groups.
Separately, European sources told Asharq
Al-Awat that UN Special envoy to Syria
Staffan de Mistura plans to resign from
his mission for family reasons.
The sources said de Mistura had
presented his resignation to former UN
Secretary General Ban ki-Moon as he did
the same with current secretary general
Antonio Guterres.
The sources said Guterres had asked the
special envoy to remain in power until
the end of his mission, which coincides
next Friday.
Therefore, it was not a coincident when
de Mistura set March 31 as the date to
end the fifth round of the Syrian talks in
Geneva, where regime and opposition
delegations met on Saturday.
With this month ends the mission
delegated by Ban ki-Moon in May 2014 to
the Swedish-Italian diplomat who was
tasked to find a political exit that could
end the Syrian war.
Both his predecessors former UN
Secretary General Kofi Annan and
Algerian veteran diplomat Lakhdar
Brahimi had failed to complete the
peace-facilitation role in Syria.
However, UN spokesman Farhan Haq told
Asharq Al-Awsat that he refuses to
comment on the information, saying it
was “inaccurate.”