UN Syria Envoy Recognizes ‘Very Difficult Mission’

Posted September 3rd, 2012 at 5:10 am (UTC-5)
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The new United Nations-Arab League envoy tasked with bringing a peaceful solution to the Syrian crisis says he has “no illusions” that his job will be easy.

Algerian diplomat Lakhdar Brahimi said in an interview broadcast Monday by the BBC that he does not yet see any ways around the barriers that blocked the efforts of his predecessor, Kofi Annan, but that he will continue trying.

Brahimi says he realizes the difficulty of his task, and that success “should be possible.”

Mr. Annan quit last month, complaining that he could not fulfill his mission due to international divisions on Syria and escalating attacks by Syrian government and rebel forces.

Brahimi says the lack of international action as people in Syria continue dying “is a terrible weight.”

Opposition activists are reporting more deaths Monday, saying a bombing by a Syrian warplane has killed at least 15 people in the northern town of Al-Bab.

The U.N. children's fund UNICEF says Syria's civil war killed 1,600 people last week, making it the deadliest seven-day period of the 18-month conflict.

Syrian opposition activists have been reporting daily death tolls of 100 to 200 people in the past week as President Bashar al-Assad's forces intensified the use of air power to crush the uprising against his autocratic rule. Daily casualty reports from rebel and government sources are difficult to verify because the fighting and government censorship have kept many foreign journalists away.

Several Syrian rights groups said the conflict's death toll for August was nearly 5,000. It was the deadliest month since the uprising began in March of last year.