GENEVA – UN Special Envoy for Syria Staffan de Mistura urged Russia on Wednesday to convince its ally, the Syrian government of the need to clinch a peace deal to end the nearly seven-year-old war.
Mr De Mistura, speaking on Swiss television station RTS, said failure to make peace quickly through United Nations mediation could lead to “a fragmentation of Syria”.
Russian President Vladimir Putin during a surprise visit on Monday to Russia’s Hmeymim air base in Syria, declared that the work of Russian forces was largely done in backing the Assad government against militants, following the defeat of “the most battle-hardened group of international terrorists.”
Mr De Mistura, asked what signal Mr Putin could give from his position of force, said: “Convince the (Syrian) government that there is no time to lose … You can think you win territory militarily but you have to win the peace.
“And to win the peace, you have to have the courage to push the government to accept that there has to be a new constitution and new elections, through the United Nations,” he said.
The nearly seven-year civil war in Syria has killed hundreds of thousands of people and driven more than 11 million from their homes.
All previous diplomatic efforts to resolve the conflict have ended in failure over the opposition’s demand that President Bashar al-Assad leave power and his refusal to go.
The Kremlin first launched air strikes in Syria in September 2015 in its biggest Middle East intervention in decades, turning the tide of the conflict in Assad’s favour.
