SOCHI, May 17 (RIA Novosti) - UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, who met with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Sochi, the host city for the 2014 Winter Olympic Games, said on Friday he hoped the Russian government would back a UN General Assembly resolution calling for observation of an Olympic Truce during the event.
The Olympic Truce, suspending armed conflict during the games, was originally held by the ancient Greeks. The tradition was revived by the International Olympic Committee in 1992, and in 1993, the General Assembly urged Member States to observe the Olympic Truce from the seventh day before the opening to the seventh day following the closing of each Olympic Games.
Ban said he admired Sochi and that the UN was pinning high hopes on the event, as well as on the G20 Summit in St. Petersburg and Russia’s G8 rotating presidency, and stressed Russia's leading role in the resolution of global problems.
Earlier in the day the secretary general, who met with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, said the UN is urging Syria to allow experts into the country to investigate possible use of chemical weapons.
He also said he was not yet ready to set a timeframe for an international conference on Syria proposed by Russia and the US.
