Envoy Brahimi Says Syria Crisis 'Getting Worse'
Peace envoy Lakhdar Brahimi said on Thursday the deadly conflict in Syria was getting worse as he arrived on his first official trip aimed at ending nearly 18 months of violence.
"We came to Syria to hold meetings with our Syrian brothers because there is a big crisis, and I think it is getting worse," the official SANA news agency quoted the U.N. and Arab League envoy as saying on arrival at Damascus airport.
"I think everybody agrees the need to stop the bloodshed and to restore harmony, and we hope that we will succeed" in the mission, said Brahimi, who was appointed two weeks ago to replace former envoy Kofi Annan after the failure of his six-point peace plan for Syria.
Brahimi spoke after rebels were reported to have advanced into a key district of the northern city of Aleppo, where activists said at least 11 people were killed in a strike by a helicopter gunship.
"During his visit to Syria, Brahimi will hold talks with the government and with representatives of the Syrian opposition and civil society," said a statement from his spokesman Ahmad Fawzi, who had previously announced the veteran diplomat from Algeria would meet President Bashar Assad.
Brahimi was to meet Foreign Minister Walid Muallem later on Thursday, an official Syrian source said.
During his three-day visit he will also meet members of the Syrian opposition tolerated by the regime on Friday, the source said.
Brahimi was accompanied by Mokhtar Lamani, who will remain in Damascus to assume his new functions as head of office for the Joint Special Representative for Syria in the city, Fawzi said.
Faisal Muqdad, Syria's deputy foreign minister, said: "We trust that Brahimi has a general understanding of the developments and of the way to solve problems despite the complexities. We are optimistic and we wish Brahimi success."
However, the envoy highlighted to Arab League envoys in Cairo this week that he knows he faces an uphill struggle, with no sign of a lull in the violence.
He told envoys to the Cairo-based League that "he was approaching the crisis in Syria with his eyes open and the full knowledge that it was an extremely difficult task," a U.N. spokeswoman said.
In Brussels on Thursday, Egyptian President Mohammed Morsi reiterated that Assad must step down because "a president that kills his own people is not acceptable."
And British Foreign Secretary William Hague, visiting Baghdad, told reporters the Damascus regime is "doomed, that it is not possible for it to survive, and so many crimes (have been) committed that it should not survive."
On the ground, rebels advanced on Thursday into the contested central Midan district of Syria's commercial capital Aleppo, witnesses and military sources said, as combat rocked several city neighborhoods.
An AFP journalist reported columns of black smoke hanging over the city, scene of some of the country's heaviest violence since fighting erupted there on July 20.
Warplanes fired at several districts from high altitude in a bid to stay out of range of rebel weapons, he added.
Source: Agence France Presse
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