SyriaVeteran diplomat Brahimi replaces Anan as UN envoy to Syria
The UN Security Council last Thursday decided to end to UN observers mission to Syria, and replace the Kofi Annan, who resigned as UN envoy to Syria two weeks ago, with veteran Algerian diplomat Lakhdar Brahhimi; Annan’s efforts at mediation were equally pointless. The reason: both sides believed they would eventually prevail, and thus had no incentive to negotiate or compromise
The UN Security Council last Thursday decided to end to UN observers mission to Syria, and replace the Kofi Annan, who resigned as UN envoy to Syria two weeks ago, with veteran Algerian diplomat Lakhdar Brahhimi.
A few hundred UN observers were sent to Syria to monitor cease-fire agreements between the regime and the insurgents, but there were no such agreements and thus nothing to monitor. The observers were able, on a few occasions, to verify claims of atrocities by the regime and its militias against civilians in towns and villages in insurgent-controlled areas, but even such reporting typically lagged behind smartphone videos and journalistic reports from the field.
Annan’s efforts at mediation were equally pointless. The reason: both sides believed they would eventually prevail, and thus had no incentive to negotiate or compromise. The Assad regime had the backing of Russia and China, which made sure to keep UN Security Council resolutions toothless. Russia and Iran have continued to send large arms shipment to the besieged regime, and Iran and Hezbollah sent military personnel to help the regime better conduct its campaign.
The insurgents, bolstered by support from Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Turkey, and Jordan – and, more recently, covert assistance from the CIA – believed that the tide of history is with them, and that events in Syria would follow the Arab Spring in Tunisia, Egypt, Libya, and Yemen.
To be fair to Annan, the opposition to Assad is so diverse and so fractured, consisting of an ever shifting and leaderless alliances of dozens and dozens of opposition groups, that there appeared to be no way for the insurgents to deliver on agreements some of them would make.
Brahimi told the BBC he was committed to finding a solution to the conflict. “I haven’t joined any Syrian party. I am a mediator, and a mediator has to speak to anybody and everybody.”
On Sunday, Brahimi said his task was no longer to prevent a civil war, but to end one. “Civil war is the cruellest kind of conflict, when a neighbor kills his neighbor and sometimes his brother,” the newly appointed Brahimi told France 24 television. “What’s necessary is to stop the civil war and that is not going to be easy.”
