US won’t share Syria deal with UN: Russia

Russian UN Ambassador Vitaly Churkin and US Ambassador Samantha Power had been due to brief the council behind closed-doors on Friday but that was cancelled at the last minute. 

“The main problem, which in my mind makes it impossible to produce any resolution, is that they are refusing to give those documents to members of the Security Council or even to read those documents to the members of the Security Council,” Churkin told reporters. 

“We believe that we cannot ask them (council members) to support documents which they haven’t seen,” said Churkin, suggesting there was lack of unity in US President Barack Obama’s administration toward the agreement. The US mission to the United Nations said it could not agree with Russia on a way to brief the council that would “not compromise the operational security of the arrangement.” 

“Right now we are focused on the implementation of the agreement brokered by Secretary Kerry and Foreign Minister Lavrov, particularly the urgent need for humanitarian aid to reach Syrians in need,” a US spokesperson said in a statement. 

The spotlight will be on Syria when world leaders gather at the United Nations next week as the United States and Russia try to shore up a fragile truce deal and President Barack Obama pushes for a boost in global refugee aid. 

Some 135 heads of state and government and dozens of ministers will attend the 71st General Assembly, the last for both Obama and UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, who will step down at the end of 2016 after a decade in the job. “While many conflicts are causing enormous pain, none is causing so much death, destruction and widespread instability as the worsening war in Syria,” Ban told reporters on Wednesday.