The joint UN and Arab League Special Representative, Lakhdar Brahimi, presented his report on the situation in Syria to the UN General Assembly and is expected to expound it before the Security Council.

Mr. Brahimi emphasized that the only path to peace is the application of the Geneva Agreement of 30 June 2012. He spoke out in favor of (1) the creation of a transitional authority, including both members of the government and the opposition; (2) the deployment of a UN peacekeeping force; (3) municipal and presidential elections in 2014.

In addition, the General Assembly recognized Palestine as non-member state with observer status, specifying that the seat was designated for the PLO as the representative of the Palestinian people.

Then, the United Nations General Assembly adopted a resolution calling for the convening of a peace conference in Moscow that would facilitate a comprehensive settlement of the Israeli-Palestinian and Israeli-Syrian conflicts. The Conference should be based on the mandate of the Madrid Conference ("restitution of territories against peace"), the Roadmap ("two-state solution") and the Arab Peace Initiative ("normalization of relations between States in exchange for a just solution of the refugee problem"). This resolution was adopted on 30 November 2012, by 193 votes against 6.

The United States and Israel, who voted "against" for reasons of domestic politics, clearly invited their allies to vote "in favor". In other words, there is a consensus for a comprehensive settlement in the Middle East in line with James Baker III’s 1991 analysis (unsuccessfully revived by Bill Clinton in 1999).