Syria Envoy Brahimi Departs Damascus as Rebels Say his Mission is Doomed
International peace envoy to Syria Lakhdar Brahimi departed Damascus on Sunday after a four-day visit during which he met with President Bashar Assad, an AFP correspondent reported.
The veteran Algerian diplomat was seen leaving his hotel accompanied by Syria's deputy foreign minster Faisal Muqdad, and a U.N. official confirmed he was departing the country.
"Yes, he left," the U.N. staffer said without elaborating.
Brahimi, appointed international envoy to Syria in early September, arrived in the strife-torn country for his first visit on Thursday.
He warned on Saturday after a meeting with Assad that the worsening conflict in Syria threatens both the region and the world at large.
"The crisis is dangerous and getting worse, and it is a threat to the Syrian people, the region and the world," said Brahimi, who replaced Kofi Annan following the failure of the former U.N. chief's six-point peace plan.
Leaders of the rebel Free Syrian Army said on Sunday they believe Brahimi's mission will go the way of his predecessor.
"We are sure Brahimi will fail like the other envoys before him, but we (the rebels) do not want to be the reason of his failure," FSA commander Abdel Jabbar al-Okaidi told AFP by telephone, after a Skype conference call with the peace envoy.
"We discussed the general situation in Syria, mainly focusing on the destruction wielded by the regime on the country," said Okaidi, who talked to Brahimi along with the FSA spokesman in Syria, Colonel Qassem Saadeddine, and the group's chief in Damascus, Colonel Khaled Hobous.
He accused the international community of "giving political cover to the regime" and of pushing the opposition to hold talks with the regime but without pressuring the government to stop its repression.
"We do not want the international community to help the Syrian people. We just want it to remove the political cover it grants to the criminal regime," said Okaidi. "We cannot be in dialogue with criminals."
Source: Agence France Presse
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