Teacher:In this task, you are given a text of many news articles seperated by special token "|||||". Your task is to summarize them.
Teacher: Now, understand the problem? Solve this instance: UNITED NATIONS (AP) — The U.N. Security Council's unanimous support of a peace process for Syria that is set to begin next month with government-opposition talks and a cease-fire represents its strongest gesture yet in support of a solution to the civil war. 
  
 U.N. Special Envoy for Syria Staffan de Mistura, right, shows a copy of a Security Council resolution concerning Syria, during a press conference with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, left, and... (Associated Press) 
  
 U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, left, confers with China's Foreign Minister Wang Yi, right, before they addressed a gathering in the U.N. Security Council of foreign ministers following a vote on... (Associated Press) 
  
 Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, left, and U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry hold a press conference after a meeting in the U.N. Security Council of foreign ministers for a vote concerning Syria,... (Associated Press) 
  
 U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, top, and U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, center, listen during a meeting of foreign ministers at the U.N. Security Council, Friday, Dec. 18, 2015 at U.N. headquarters,... (Associated Press) 
  
 Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov listens during a press conference after a meeting in the U.N. Security Council of foreign ministers for a vote concerning Syria, Friday, Dec. 18, 2015 at U.N. headquarters.... (Associated Press) 
  
 Spain Deputy Foreign Minister Ignacio Ybañez, left, listens as United Kingdom Foreign Minister Philip Hammond, right, addresses a gathering in the U.N. Security Council of foreign ministers following... (Associated Press) 
  
 The council's adoption of a resolution Friday backing the plan comes amid world powers' growing sense that the top priority in Syria should be the defeat of the Islamic State group, which has exploited the country's years of chaos and created a base from which it promotes deadly attacks abroad. 
  
 U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry told reporters that the world is going to see in the next few months whether the peace process actually takes hold. He urged key powers, including top Syria allies Russia and Iran, to match their words with actions. 
  
 "Within a month or so, two months, decisions are going to have to start to be made about the devolution of some power" and the creation of a transitional body agreed to by Syria's government and opposition with full executive power, Kerry said. 
  
 But the resolution makes no mention of the most contentious issue, the future role of Syrian President Bashar Assad. Kerry rejected the idea that Friday's vote and discussions put off tough decisions on that issue. 
  
 The United States, its European allies, Saudi Arabia and other Arab nations have insisted that Assad must go, though Kerry said "everyone" has by now realized that demanding Assad's departure up front in the process was "in fact, prolonging the war." 
  
 Kerry said "sharp differences" remain on Assad and stressed that "Assad has lost the ability ... to unite the country." 
  
 Russia and Iran have consistently rejected foreign governments' calls for Assad's departure. 
  
 Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov stressed that the Syrian people must decide their own future — and that "also covers the future of Syria's president, and that is our deep conviction." He told reporters that he was "not too optimistic about what has been achieved today, but a very important step has been made ... for Syrians to determine the future of their country." 
  
 Syria's ambassador to the U.N., Bashar Ja'afari, criticized the "glaring contradictions" between the talk about letting the Syrian people decide their fate and what he called interference in his country's sovereignty by talking about replacing Assad. 
  
 The Syrian conflict has lasted nearly five years and killed more than 300,000 people. An estimated 4 million refugees have played a large part in the migrant crisis in Europe and Syria's neighboring countries. The U.N. says tens of thousands of people are trapped in besieged areas. 
  
 "Thousands of people have been forced to live in grass and weeds. This is outrageous," U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon told the council before the vote. "The people of Syria have suffered enough." 
  
 Diplomats have made clear that the blueprint the Security Council endorsed Friday will not end the fighting in Syria. Imposing and monitoring a cease-fire are impossible in areas under control of the Islamic State group. 
  
 The resolution calls on the U.N. secretary-general to convene representatives of the Syrian government and opposition "to engage in formal negotiations on a political transition process on an urgent basis, with a target of early January 2016 for the initiation of talks." 
  
 Within six months, the process should establish "credible, inclusive and non-sectarian governance" and set a schedule for drafting a new constitution. U.N.-supervised "free and fair elections" are to be held within 18 months under the new constitution. 
  
 Notably, the resolution says members of Syria's diaspora can vote in the election, which gives more say to people who have fled the conflict. 
  
 U.N. special envoy Staffan de Mistura said invitations to the peace talks among Syrian parties will go out in January, and Kerry estimated that talks would begin in the middle or end of January. 
  
 "In January, we expect to be at the table and implement a full cease-fire," he said. 
  
 The Security Council vote followed a meeting of ministers from 17 nations who came to New York to try to build momentum for a cease-fire and the start of negotiations. The ministers said they would meet again next month. 
  
 One key issue that lies ahead is deciding which groups in Syria should be part of an opposition negotiating team and which should be considered terrorist organizations instead. 
  
 Jordanian Foreign Minister Nasser Judeh said he presented lists submitted from each country of groups they consider terrorist organizations. He said some countries "sent 10, 15, 20 names" and others more. 
  
 A group of countries will join Jordan in developing that list, Kerry told reporters. Lavrov warned against efforts to "divide terrorists among good and bad ones." 
  
 De Mistura is now tasked with pulling together a final negotiating team for the Syrian opposition. He was upbeat, saying "mission impossible is becoming potentially possible, thanks to what we saw today." ||||| UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - The United Nations Security Council on Friday unanimously approved a resolution endorsing an international road map for a Syria peace process, a rare show of unity among major powers on a conflict that has claimed more than a quarter million lives. 
  
 The resolution gives a U.N. blessing to a plan negotiated previously in Vienna that calls for a ceasefire, talks between the Syrian government and opposition, and a roughly two-year timeline to create a unity government and hold elections. 
  
 But the obstacles to ending the nearly five-year civil war remain daunting, with no side in the conflict able to secure a clear military victory. Despite their agreement, the major powers are bitterly divided on who may represent the opposition as well as on the future of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. 
  
 “This council is sending a clear message to all concerned that the time is now to stop the killing in Syria and lay the groundwork for a government that the long-suffering people of that battered land can support,” U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry told the 15-nation council after the vote. 
  
 The resolution also calls for the U.N. to present the council with options for monitoring a ceasefire within one month. 
  
 Talks between Syria’s government and opposition should begin in early January, the resolution said, though Kerry said mid-to-late January was more likely. It also endorsed the continued battle to defeat Islamic State militants who have seized large swaths of both Syria and neighboring Iraq. 
  
 It was one of the strongest appeals for peace by the council, divided for years on the issue of Syria’s war, since Russia and China began vetoing a series of Western-drafted resolutions on the conflict in October 2011. 
  
 The resolution came after Moscow and Washington clinched a deal on a text. The two powers have had very different views on what should happen in Syria, where Islamic State militants control considerable territory that Western governments suspect has been a launch pad for attacks on Western nations and Russia. 
  
 Kerry made clear that there were still differences on the future of Assad, a close ally of Russia and Iran who Western countries want ousted, as well as on the question of which Syrian opposition groups will have a seat at the table in talks with the government. 
  
 “We are under no illusions about the obstacles that exist,” Kerry said. “There obviously remain sharp differences within the international community, especially about the future of President Assad.” 
  
 The resolution does not address Assad’s fate. 
  
 Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said of the resolution: “This is a clear response to attempts to impose a solution from the outside on Syrians on any issues, including those regarding its president.” 
  
 “CHAMPIONS OF DEMOCRACY” 
  
 French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius said the talks between the Syrian government and opposition would only succeed if there were credible guarantees on the departure of Assad. 
  
 “How could this man unite a people that he has in part massacred?” Fabius said. “The idea that he could once again stand for elections is unacceptable to us.” 
  
 Syrian Ambassador Bashar Ja’afari said Assad’s government was prepared to take part in the talks in good faith. 
  
 “I reiterate the readiness of the Syrian government to participate effectively on any sincere effort where the Syrians will determine their choices through dialogue under Syrian leadership and not foreign intervention,” he said, adding that all countries should coordinate with his government. 
  
 Agreement on a resolution came after a meeting of the so-called International Syria Support Group at New York’s Palace Hotel. 
  
 Foreign ministers from 17 countries, including Lavrov, Kerry and other European and Middle Eastern ministers, as well as top diplomats from regional rivals Turkey, Saudi Arabia and Iran, were in New York for the meetings. 
  
 Members of the security council voted at the United Nations Headquarters in Manhattan, New York, December 18, 2015. REUTERS/Eduardo Munoz 
  
 During a break in Friday’s talks, Jordanian Foreign Minister Nasser Judeh said he had presented a document compiling the groups each country attending considered to be a “terrorist” organization. 
  
 Kerry said other countries would help Jordan draw up a final list. 
  
 As with the question of Assad’s fate, diplomats say it will be extremely difficult to reach consensus on a list of terrorist groups to be excluded and legitimate members of an opposition who would participate in the negotiations. 
  
 The Syria road map, which also calls for a nationwide ceasefire that would not apply to Islamic State, Nusra Front and some other militant groups, was previously worked out in two rounds of ministerial talks in Vienna. 
  
 Diplomats said the main problem in the negotiations on the resolution involved Russian and Iranian concerns about how to refer to a bloc of opposition groups that would join U.N.-led peace talks with the Syrian government. 
  
 Western officials say a recent meeting in Saudi Arabia of opposition figures made significant headway in coming up with an opposition bloc, though Russia and Iran have questioned the legitimacy of the Saudi-hosted discussions. 
  
 In a dig at Saudi Arabia, Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif wrote in The Guardian on Friday that it was “utterly absurd that those who have denied their own population the most rudimentary tenets of democracy ... are now self-declared champions of democracy in Syria.” 
  
 The Riyadh conference agreed to set up a 34-member secretariat to supervise peace talks, and that committee will also select the opposition’s negotiating team. 
  
 Earlier this week, diplomats said some progress had been made on the most difficult sticking point in the talks: Assad’s fate. 
  
 They said Russia had indicated it had no problem with the eventual ouster of Assad at the end of a transition period, though it would not admit that publicly. 
  
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Student:
After years of ruinous civil war, the United Nations Security Council has finally approved a peace deal for what's left of Syria—but it leaves the future of President Bashar Assad a mystery. The resolution adopted by a unanimous vote on Friday says Syria must hold elections within 18 months of the beginning of peace talks, though it doesn't say whether Assad will be eligible to run, reports the New York Times. US Secretary of State John Kerry said there are obviously "sharp differences within the international community, especially about the future of President Assad," and it is now clear that failure to allow any compromise on the issue was, "in fact, prolonging the war," the AP reports. Despite the obstacles, the resolution shows a degree of unity that has been lacking until now, Reuters reports. "This council is sending a clear message to all concerned that the time is now to stop the killing in Syria and lay the groundwork for a government that the long-suffering people of that battered land can support," Kerry said. The resolution calls for representatives of the Syrian government and the opposition—not including ISIS and other groups deemed "terrorist"—to begin talks in early January, reports the AP. The Times notes that resolution says all Syrians "including members of the diaspora," should be able to vote, which is a requirement Kerry added in the hope that Syrians worldwide will vote against the Assad regime.