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UN Security Council to Discuss Syria Ceasefire Amid COVID-19 on 13 April

UNITED NATIONS (Sputnik) - The UN Security Council will later in the month discuss a national ceasefire in Syria amid the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, Dominican Republic’s Special Envoy to the Security Council Jose Singer Weisinger said on Wednesday.
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Singer, who assumes the presidency over the UN Security Council in April, pointed out that due to the extraordinary circumstances brought about by the global health emergency, the Security Council meetings will be held via video conferencing in both private and public manners.

"On 13 April, we will discuss the political situation in Syria", Singer said. "Of course, the issue of a national ceasefire will also be most likely addressed as the situation of how the COVID-19 pandemic is impacting both the humanitarian and the political situations in a country devastated by almost 10 years of conflict".

UN Special Envoy for Syria Geir Pedersen will participate in the meeting and brief the Security Council on the efforts taken to mobilize the Syrian Constitutional Committee, which has not met since its launch in November, Singer noted.

He added that the monthly meeting on the humanitarian situation in Syria will be held on 29 April.

On 15 April, UN High Representative for Disarmament Affairs Izumi Nakamitsu will deliver a monthly report of the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) on the Syrian chemical dossier, according to the council’s president.

Additionally, in early April, the OPCW will report on the work it has completed to identify the perpetrators of the use of chemical weapons in the Arab Republic.

Singer further said that the UN Security Council will turn its attention to the Middle Eastern agenda again on 16 April, with a meeting on the recent escalation in Yemen.

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