Tangier - On May 13, 2014, at a daily press briefing, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon announced the resignation of the joint United Nations-League of Arab States Special Representative for Syria, Lakhdar Brahimi.
Tangier – On May 13, 2014, at a daily press briefing, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon announced the resignation of the joint United Nations-League of Arab States Special Representative for Syria, Lakhdar Brahimi.
The international community is vastly divided over how to end the bloodshed that has been running for more than three years in Syria. Yesterday, Ban Ki-moon announced that he has regretfully accepted the tendered resignation of Lakhdar Brahimi.
As the conflict in Syria continues, with no end in sight, the Secretary General of the United Nations lamented, saying that the envoy’s resignation is a “tragedy for the Syrian people” and “failure” for the United Nations.
Special Representative Brahimi was appointed on August 17, 2012, and took over the peace-facilitation role played by former UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan. Mr. Brahimi was also the former Head of the UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan from October 2001, to December 2004.
“I’m very, very sad to leave Syria in such a bad state,” Mr. Brahimi said in a briefing, according to un.org. He added that he has no doubt that the Secretary-General will do “everything humanly possible’’ to cooperate with the UN Security Council, the Syrian parties and with neighboring countries, to put an end to the sorrowful crisis in Syria.
“I’m sure the crisis will end, but all [stakeholders] should consider how much more death, how much more destruction will occur…before Syria can become a new Syria,” said Mr. Brahimi.
According to the UN reports on the state of Syrian people, the conflict in Syria, which began in March 2011, has led to well over 100,000 deaths and more than 680,000 people have been injured. Additionally, more than 9.3 million people are in need of shelter inside Syria, at least 6 million are internally displaced, and millions have been sheltered in neighboring countries, especially Turkey.
Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said that Mr. Brahimi, who has long been known as one of the more brilliant diplomats, had sought an end to the atrocious, ongoing war in Syria. The 80-year old Algerian diplomat has courageously faced challenging odds from, “the Syrian nation, Middle Easters region and wider international community that have been hopelessly divided in their approached to ending the conflict.’’
In a video of the press briefing released by the UN, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon bemoaned, “the objective to which he applied his extraordinary talents has proven elusive and is a tragedy for the Syrian people,” adding that, “his efforts have not received effective support from the United Nations body that is charged with upholding peace and security, and from countries with influence on the Syria situation, it is a failure of all of us.”
Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon expressed his great appreciation of the tremendous efforts Mr. Brahimi had been employing in the Geneva Communiqué. This international conference calls for the Syrian opposition and the government to agree on having a transitional government, chosen by fair elections, from the Syrian people.
“I regret that the parties, and especially the Government, have proven so reluctant to take advantage of that opportunity to end the country’s profound misery,” said Mr. Ban.
At the end of the press briefing, the UN chief said that he would continue consultations on the way forward and would make a decision later on Mr. Brahimi’s successor.
Edited by Peter “Clay” Smith.
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