UNITED NATIONS -- The official who steered the U.N.'s diplomacy in Syria for nearly seven turbulent years is resigning. Geir Pedersen, who has held diplomatic posts for decades for the world body and his native Norway, told the U.N. Security Council on Thursday that he would leave his position in the "near future,” but did not say when. The 69-year-old diplomat said he had intended for a while “to move on for personal reasons” and stayed on because of rapid and major developments in Syria. Pedersen was appointed as the U.N.'s special envoy to Syria in 2018, seven years into the country's civil war. Amid the chaos, Islamic State group militants took over significant parts of the nation . In 2019, the group lost the last sliver of land its fighters controlled, but sleeper cells linger. Peder

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