New U.N. Envoy 'Scared' by Syria Conflict Task
New U.N.-Arab League envoy Lakdhar Brahimi said Friday that he was "scared" at the size of the task of ending the Syria conflict.
The former Algerian foreign minister made the comments as he started meetings with U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon and other top officials and U.N. ambassadors before officially taking the place of Kofi Annan on September 1.
"When you called me I told you that I was honored, flattered, humbled and scared. I am still in that frame of mind," Brahimi told U.N. leader Ban Ki-moon before they started a meeting at U.N. headquarters.
"I will definitely give this my very, very best. I know a few people in Syria and in the region," added Brahimi who as an Arab League envoy brokered the 1989 accord that ended Lebanon's civil war.
Ban said that the new envoy faced a "crucial task" as the Syrian war worsens. The U.N. leader made a new plea for the divided U.N. Security Council to unite behind Brahimi.
Brahimi has already been criticized by some Syrian opposition groups for not saying that Syria's President Bashar Assad must stand down.
Brahimi said, however, that the Syrian people "will be our first masters. We will consider their interests above and before anyone else. We will try to help as much as we can, we will not spare any effort."
Annan, a former U.N. secretary general, ended his six month bid to bring peace to Syria, complaining about the lack of international support for his efforts to make Assad implement an agreed peace plan.
As the conflict worsens, Brahimi has indicated that he will try new tactics. He is to spend a week in New York holding talks with U.N. political, humanitarian and other officials and diplomats to set up his mission, officials said.
U.N. officials insist that Annan's six point plan and a plan of action agreed by the major powers at a meeting in Geneva on June 30 are still the basis for any accord between Assad.
"That peace plan remains intact," said U.N. spokesman Martin Nesirky, who added that Annan's plan and the Geneva accord, which said there must be a political transition in Syria, are "building blocks for Mr. Brahimi to use."
"Of course he will be looking with other U.N. officials at how this is going to be taken forward. But at this point we can't really comment on what that might be," Nesirky told reporters.
Ban said that Brahimi was taking on "a very important, crucial task, to bring peace and stability and the promotion of human rights in Syria."
He called Brahimi an internationally respected statesman of "extraordinary talent and experience in the region."
"I am deeply concerned, as you are, as all the members of the international community, that still fighting is going on. The longer this fighting goes on the more people will be killed, the more people will suffer," Ban said.
"It is crucially important that the Security Council, the whole United Nations System is supporting your work," Ban added.
The five permanent members of the Security Council are seriously split over Syria. Russia and China have blocked three resolutions on the conflict that could have led to sanctions against Assad. They in turn have accused western nations of only seeking regime change.
With Syrian activists now putting the toll from the 17-month-old conflict at more than 24,500, the first test of international unity will be at U.N. Security Council ministerial meeting on August 30 on the humanitarian impact of the civil war.
French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius is to chair the meeting as France is Security Council president for August. It is not yet clear which other ministers will attend.
Source: Agence France Presse
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