Question: When are you going to announce the 6^th round of the Geneva talks [Constitutional Committee], and how maybe the cross-border access and any Russian and American agreement will help you in that.

 Mr. Pedersen: Let me first say that I have had now very good discussions with the Russians, the Iranians and the Turkish delegations. And as you know, I just actually came from Rome where I had also good discussions with the Americans, the Europeans, the Arabs, the League of Arab States and the European Union. 

 And what I like to emphasis is that I heard from all the foreign ministers in Rome the same message that I am hearing here, the support to my team, and my office and the work that we are doing, for the broader political process and indeed also for the work that we are doing on the Constitutional Committee.

 As you rightly stated, there are now discussions in New York on the cross-border mechanism. You know, all of you very well, the views of the UN and the Secretary-General on this. I have obviously repeated that. I have repeated in Rome, as I did here in Nur-Sultan today – that it is, for the sake of the lives of the Syrian people, extremely important that we have 12 months so that we can continue for the UN the humanitarian efforts to support the Syrian people. And as you know, we want cross-border operations to continue, and we want cross-line operations to continue. This has also here been a very important message from me.

 And of course, we are all waiting to hear hopefully good news from New York.

 Question: On the Constitutional Committee?

 Mr. Pedersen: We have had some very good discussions and also on this, I heard and felt very strong support to the work that I am doing. And as you know, I am now discussing with the Co-Chair nominated by the Government, and I will now in the next few days also continue my dialogue and discussions with the Co-Chair from the SNC.

And based on that I hope, we hopefully soon can have an agreement that can make it possible for us to meet again and to continue the discussions in the Constitutional Committee, and a sixth round. And then I hope it will be possible to meet on a regular basis. 

Question: Any relations between the two cases, the border and [the Constitutional Committee]?

Mr. Pedersen: No, listen the one thing is strictly a humanitarian issue. The Constitutional Committee is part of the broader political process as outlined in Security Council resolution 2254.  I am hopeful that without connecting the two things, we will be successful on both fronts. 

 Thank you.