UN, Quartet to discuss jump-starting peace efforts

UNITED NATIONS — Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov was slated to host a UN Security Council meeting on Israeli-Palestinian peace efforts Wednesday, as the issue took center stage at the world body ahead of a flag-raising and speech by Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas.

The so-called Quartet of Mideast mediators — the United Nations, the United States, the European Union and Russia — are expected to meet alone first and then with key Mideast nations to discuss reviving long-stalled peace negotiations as part of the meeting Wednesday.

The meeting is expected to focus mostly on fighting terrorism, reinforcing a theme dominating much of this week’s gathering of world leaders at the United Nations.

Russia planned to propose a UN Security Council resolution on fighting “terrorism”, deputy foreign minister Mikhail Bogdanov was quoted as saying by RIA Novosti news agency.

He said Moscow would propose the resolution at the special meeting on ways to defeat Islamic State jihadists in Syria and Iraq.

The meeting was announced as discussing “resolving conflicts in the Middle East and northern Africa and the battle with the terrorist threat.”

The meeting will also tackle the mass exodus of refugees from conflicts in Syria, Iraq and Africa to Europe.

Russian President Vladimir Putin at his speech to the UN General Assembly on Monday urged its members to unite to fight IS and proposed a Security Council resolution on a coalition to include Assad and Iran.

“The meeting will be tomorrow, we will present our draft resolution on fighting terrorism. We will propose our ideas and there will be a discussion,” Bogdanov said on Tuesday.

It was not immediately clear whether this draft resolution was the one referred to by Putin.

Foreign ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova confirmed that the draft resolution would be presented Wednesday without giving any details.

Putin at his speech to the UN General Assembly called for a broader UN-backed coalition and for the West and its partners in the region to join forces with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad to fight IS.

Putin said Russia had not ruled out air strikes in support of Assad’s forces in their battle against jihadist rebels but said it would only take steps “fully respecting international legal norms.”

The Kremlin’s UN envoy Vitaly Churkin said Monday Russia would propose a Security Council resolution to build an anti-IS coalition that would include Assad and his ally Iran.

Moscow on Tuesday slammed the holding of a US-led counter-terrorism summit attended by US President Barack Obama at the United Nations, calling it disrespectful.

“This initiative seriously undermines UN efforts in this direction,” Churkin was quoted as saying by Russian news agencies.

“The UN has its own anti-terror strategy and everything could easily be done within the UN framework.”