UNITED NATIONS, September 8 (RIA Novosti) - Amid talk of the advances of the Islamic State (IS), the UN on Monday said that Secretary General Ban Ki-moon's Special Envoy for Syria and Deputy Envoy will travel to Damascus for consultations starting Tuesday.
“Special Envoy for Syria, Staffan de Mistura, and Deputy Envoy Ramzy Ezzedine Ramzy, who have assumed their functions in the beginning of the month, will travel to Damascus for consultations with Syrian officials starting Tuesday,” according to the statement.
De Mistura is the successor to Lakhdar Brahimi, who replaced former UN Secretary General Kofi Annan when he resigned as Joint Special Representative on Syria of the UN and the League of Arab States.
The UN on Monday said that “following this initial visit to Syria, they will then embark on a first round of visits to countries in the region to be continued with visits to other capitals during October and after the conclusion of the High-level Debate in the General Assembly.”
The Islamic State, also known as the Islamic State of Iraq and Greater Syria (ISIS) or the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), is a Sunni jihadist group that has been fighting the Syrian government since 2012. In June 2014, the group extended its attacks to northern and western Iraq, declaring a caliphate on the territories under its control later that month.
