Mexico invited to Syria talks

Tuesday, 21 January 2014 00:10 
THE NEWS


Jorge Lomónaco, Mexico’s permanent representative to the international organizations based in Geneva, thanked UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on Monday for inviting Mexico to participate in an upcoming multilateral conference on the Syria conflict.

According to Lomónaco, Mexico’s participation in the Syria talks is unprecedented in the history of the country’s foreign policy and an important recognition of the country’s role as a responsible global actor.

The fact that the United Nations has selected Mexico to collaborate “in resolving a problem like the situation in Syria, even though it’s not in our immediate region,” is of great importance, especially given the serious threat of the ongoing civil war for global security.

The Mexican delegation that will attend the so-called Geneva 2 summit will be headed by Foreign Relations Secretary José Antonio Meade, Lomónaco said.

Ban announced Mexico’s participation in the Syria peace talks on Sunday, along with almost 40 other nations.

The U.N. Secretary-General on Monday withdrew an invitation to Iran after Syria’s opposition forces threatened to boycott the conference. The U.S. State Department publicly resisted Iranian participation, saying that it would only accept Iran’s invitation on the condition it support calls for a transitional government.

Other countries that will participate in Syrian peace talks for the first time will include the Vatican City, Australia, Bahrain, Belgium, Greece, Luxembourg, the Netherlands and South Korea.

Ban said that Mexico was a very important regional player that can play an important role in the Geneva 2 talks, adding that the country’s participation will send an important message of solidarity to those suffering from violence in Syria.

The conference will begin on Jan. 22 in the Swiss city of Montreux and the negotiation process as such will begin two days later in Geneva.

In total, 39 countries will participate in the Geneva 2 conference, including U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, British Foreign Secretary William Hague, French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius and Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi.

The Syrian government will be represented by Foreign Minister Walid al-Muallem and the opposition by Ahmad Jarba, president of the National Coalition for Syrian Revolutionary and Opposition Forces.