Ban Ki Moon meets foreign ministers of UN's big five on Syria

United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon held Wednesday a luncheon with the foreign ministers of the five permanent members of the Security Council to discuss Syria. Ban and the foreign ministers had agreed that the discussion on this occasion would focus entirely on Syria, the office of Ban's spokesperson said in a statement. The statement said they discussed arrangements for a mechanism to be established soon between the United Nations and the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) in order to inspect and safeguard Syria's stockpile of chemical weapons. They exchanged views on the timing and other aspects of an international peace conference to be held in Geneva.  The Secretary-General and the ministers underlined the importance of heightened efforts to resolve the humanitarian crisis both inside Syria and in the neighbouring countries, the statement added.