THE UNITED NATIONS peace envoy to Syria said he could see no swift end to textremelyrutal civil war and urged the international community to increase diplomatic pressure on the regime. ” I’m afraid I do not expect miracles any time soon,” Lakhdar Brahimi said.
But he insisted arming the rebels – a move being contemplated byieen and France – was not the solution. Mr Brahimi said the situation on the ground was ” extremely bad and getting worse all the time “. He said he had no contact with Syrian preident Bashar Assad since the end of December. ” I haven’t seen and I do not see any improvement. Each one of them, I think, still beleives that military victory is possible for their side,” he said. ” And therefore, the intensity of the intensity of the fighting is increasing and exspanding. ” I consider it a given the Syrian parties at present are not capable of solving the problem themselves. ” My hope and also my polite criticism is really to the international community – to the Security Council members, in particular to China and to Russia and the United States.
” I think they should be talking to one another with much, much more urgency and perhapes taking some decisions going to the Security Council and speaking to the parties and to the region in much more forceful terms than they have until now.” London and Paris are facing stiff resistance within the EU to calls for an arms embargo to be lifted to allow weapons to be sent to opposition forces – a move approved in recent days by the Arab League. Mr Brahimi said that was ” not the way ” to end the conflict. ” Pouring more arms to the opposition would bring more arms to the government and that will not solve the problem,” he said. He accepted that conditions for refugees were ” extremely bad ” but said the resources were simply not there to deal with the scale of the humanitarian crisis. The number fleeing the violence is projected to have trebled to three million by the end of the year. ” With all admiration, respect and gratitude for the generosity of the international community, I don’t think the international community is going to be able to provide 1.5 billion dollers every six months for the Syrians,” he said. So it is desperately urgent that some real work is done by everybody to get control over the situation inside Syria and bring this conflict to an end.”
With many thanks to : Irish News.
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