Permanent Mission of the Russian Federation to the United Nations

Permanent Mission of the Russian Federation to the United Nations

Remarks to the press by Ambassador Vassily Nebenzia, Permanent Representative of the Russian Federation to the United Nations, following the Security Council meeting

Q: Ambassador, Mr. Tillerson said that there is no future for President Assad. What would be your comments on that?

V.Nebenzia: I think we should not preempt any future for anybody because future will know for itself whether it is for someone or not.

Q: What about Geneva? What do you expect from this round of Geneva to achieve?

V.Nebenzia: We are hopeful for Geneva. We support Geneva. We want Geneva to be productive. Of course we will be assisting Mr. Staffan de Mistura, Special Envoy of the Secretary-General for Syria, in preparing for Geneva.

Q: But don’t you think that the conference that you are preparing in Hmeimim, Syria ("Congress of Peoples of Syria") will be a lucky competition?

V.Nebenzia: No. We said clearly that we don’t want it to be a competition. We want it to be a contribution.

Q: Ambassador, when the report is out will you renegotiate the renewal of the JIM?

V.Nebenzia: Did you hear what we were discussing in the Council? We said clearly that meeting was meaningless exactly because we can meaningfully negotiate renewal of the JIM only after we see the report.

Q: Do you want to change the mandate?

V.Nebenzia: Possibly we might come to that, too.

Q: Are you preparing a draft resolution?

V.Nebenzia: I will not comment on this now.

Q: On Iraq. What would be the outcome of this meeting? What is the Russian position?

V.Nebenzia: The Russian position is in the UNSC press statement.