UN Secretary-General’s Envoy to Visit Saudi Arabia, Iran

The UN Secretary-General’s Special Envoy for Syria, Staffan de Mistura, is visiting Riyadh, Saudi Arabia over diplomatic rows between the two countries.

The United Nations Spokesman, Steplane DuJarrick, has said that UN Secretary-General’s Special Envoy for Syria, Staffan de Mistura [above], is visiting Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.

DuJarrick told reporters on Monday in New York that de Mistura would also visit Iran later in the week.

He said that during the visits, the Special Envoy would assess the implications of the recent developments between Saudi Arabia and Iran on the momentum of the Vienna process for Syria.

The spokesman said that de Mistura believed that the crisis in Saudi-Iranian relations ”is a very worrisome development”.

DuJarrick told reporters that the envoy stressed the need to ensure that the development did not cause a chain of adverse consequences in the region.

NAN reports that Saudi Arabia cut off diplomatic relations with Iran on Sunday, following the execution of Sheikh al-Nimr and 46 other prisoners by Saudi Arabia on Saturday.

The Saudi authorities gave Iranian diplomats 48 hours to leave the country as the kingdom’s execution of the cleric inflamed sectarian tensions.

In another development, DuJarrick said that the UN Mission in the Central African Republic reported that the National Elections Authority had released partial provisional results.

He said that the results were based on votes cast in eight prefectures and 15 per cent of votes cast outside of the country.

The spokesman said that the election authority ”is expected to announce the final results by the end of this week and the Constitutional Court is due to confirm the results on Jan.15”.

He said that the Mission reported that 95 per cent of the polling stations were open on the elections.

DuJarrick said that the mission confirmed that the participation of the voters in the prefectures was estimated to have reached 75 per cent.

(Source: NAN)

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