UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon is scheduled to meet Wednesday, February 23 in London with Arab League Secretary General Nabil el-Arabi to discuss the selection of a special envoy to lead an Arab team to monitor violence in Syria, a UN spokesman said.
As M&C reported citing DPA, the meeting with el-Arabi in Britain will be the first stop of a Three-nation tour by Ban. He is scheduled to continue to Zambia and Angola.
The appointment of a special envoy is mandated by the UN General Assembly, which last week adopted a resolution condemning the violence in Syria and asking Damascus to implement the Arab League's plan of action by March 1. The plan called for a transition in Syria to a multi-party political system.
UN spokesman Martin Nesirky said in New York that the 193-nation assembly has called on all parties in Syria to cooperate with the UN special envoy to work out a settlement to the 11-month uprising, in which more than 5,400 people have died.
Ban has been in talks with a number of partners over the selection of a special envoy, Nesirky said. Conditions in Syria have so far prevented the UN from making an assessment of the situation on the ground, the spokesman said.
