'Hopefully there will be some new ideas on the table and I think it'll be on those tracks: the humanitarian situation, the chemical weapons,' says Swedish Foreign Minister Margot Wallstrom

BACKAKRA, Sweden – The UN Security Council met in a secluded farmhouse on the southern tip of Sweden on Saturday, April 22, in a bid to overcome deep divisions over how to end the war in Syria. In a first for the Security Council, which normally holds its annual brainstorming session in upstate New York, the 15 ambassadors and UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres were this year invited to hold an informal meeting in Backakra by Sweden, a non-permanent member of the body. The United Nations’ special envoy for Syria, Staffan de Mistura, is expected on Sunday. The summer house where they have congregated was that of former UN Secretary-General Dag Hammarskjöld, who was the UN's second secretary-general and died in a plane crash in Africa in 1961. Situated in the heart of a nature reserve, just a stone’s throw from the Baltic Sea, the farmhouse consists of four buildings around a courtyard and has been completely renovated in recent years. The southern wing serves as the summer residence for the Swedish Academy, which awards the Nobel Literature Prize. With both New York and Damascus thousands of kilometres away, the council is exploring “the means to strengthen and make more effective United Nations peacekeeping missions,” the Swedish government said. Swedish Foreign Minister Margot Wallstrom welcomed the decision to hold the meeting in Sweden, “where there is a long tradition of peaceful conflict prevention and resolution”. But on Friday, Swedish Foreign Minister Margot Wallstrom warned against nurturing "excessive hopes that the entire [Syrian] issue will be resolved" at the meeting. “Hopefully there will be some new ideas on the table and I think it’ll be on those tracks: the humanitarian situation, the chemical weapons,” she said. But “not even the beautiful settings like these can solve all the problems”, the minister added. He said he was optimistic about North Korea’s decision, saying that “the path is open for the peaceful denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula.”

Meanwhile, Nikki Haley, the U.S. ambassador to the U.N., said diplomats were “still deadlocked” over the issue of Syria. “Retreats like this are very important — to get away from New York sometimes and discuss these things in a way that we can really try and find a solution.”

British ambassador Karen Pierce said: “We are determined to try and find a workable solution, so we will keep doing that with our Russian colleagues.”

While the war in Syria is not the only topic of the deliberations, it is high up on the agenda because it was an issue that divided council members deeply in recent months. Skau said Backakra was a “fitting and inspiring venue” to reconnect with the power of diplomacy. “It’s a place to roll up our sleeves, take off our jackets and ties and come up with some real and meaningful ways forward,” he said. Sweden's deputy UN ambassador Carl Skau said the idea was "to recreate dialogue" and "relaunch momentum" with "humility and patience", a week after the air strikes by France, the UK and the US against Syria in retaliation for an alleged chemical attack in Douma. Syria has been accused of using chemical weapons in an attack a week earlier in Douma, the last rebel stronghold near Damascus. Assad and Russian allies have denied that Syria was responsible for the attack, which according to rescuers, left more than 40 people dead. But the Western powers insist that the Syrian regime had crossed a red line. The air strikes, carried out without a Security Council resolution, have led to fierce tensions between Russia, a permanent member and ally of Syria, and the US, France, the UK and China. The meeting comes just a week after France, Britain and the U.S. launched joint airstrikes at suspected Syrian chemical weapons sites, saying Syrian President Bashar Assad’s government was behind an alleged chemical weapons attack in the town of Douma. Some non-permanent member countries of the council have been critical of the trip to Sweden. With the conflicts the council has on its table, including the one in Syria, it is abnormal that the council would travel so far, said one ambassador, speaking on condition of anonymity. “What will happen if something bad happens?” the ambassador asked.
Sweden hosts the United Nations Security Council in Backåkra where the Syrian conflict is discussed by diplomats at a rare meeting outside the UN's New York headquarters.