Syria war could be 'longer and deeper' than Somalia - UN envoy
World
Tuesday 29 October 2013 - 3:02pm
DAMASCUS
- UN-Arab League envoy Lakhdar Brahimi was in Syria on Tuesday on the
most sensitive leg of a regional push for peace talks and warned of the
"Somalisation" of the war-ravaged country.
His grim warning came as fighting prevented chemical weapons
inspectors from visiting two sites, although UN chief Ban Ki-moon said
the mission to destroy Syria's arsenal by mid-2014 was still on track.
Brahimi has been seeking to build on the momentum of last month's
US-Russian deal to eradicate Syria's chemical weapons in order to launch
the so-called Geneva II peace talks proposed for next month.
But the talks have been cast into doubt by the increasingly divided
opposition's refusal to attend unless President Bashar al-Assad agrees
to step down, a demand rejected by Damascus.
In an interview with a French website published on Monday, Brahimi
said Assad could contribute to the transition to a "new" Syria but not
as the country's leader.
"What history teaches us is that after a crisis like this there is
no going back," the Algerian diplomat told the Jeune Afrique website
ahead of his first visit to Syria since December, when he angered the
regime by insisting that all powers be handed over to a transitional
government.
The veteran troubleshooter admitted "the entire world will not be
present" at the talks, but said the alternative to a political
settlement could be a failed state in the heart of the Middle East.
"The real danger is a sort of 'Somalisation,' but even more deep and lasting than what we have seen in Somalia."
More than 115,000 people are estimated to have been killed in
Syria's 31-month conflict, which erupted after the regime launched a
brutal crackdown on peaceful pro-democracy protests.
In the latest blow to peace efforts, 19 Islamist rebel groups said
Sunday that anyone who attends the Geneva talks would be committing
"treason" and could face execution.
The warning added to doubts over whether any agreement reached by
Syria's external opposition could be implemented on the ground.
In recent months rebel groups have clashed among themselves, and
several prominent brigades have rejected the National Coalition -- the
main Western and Arab backed opposition group -- which is to meet on
November 9 to decide whether to take part in the Geneva talks.
Fighting hinders chemical inspectors
The intensity of the fighting in Syria has meanwhile slowed the
unprecedented international mission to dispose of a vast chemical
arsenal in a country torn apart by civil war.
The Hague-based Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical
Weapons said Monday its inspectors had been unable to reach the last two
of 23 disclosed chemical weapons sites for "security reasons."
Inspectors were supposed to have visited all sites declared by
Syria by Sunday as part of their mission to oversee the elimination of
the country's chemical weapons by mid-2014.
UN chief Ban Ki-moon said the inspectors were still on track to
destroy Syria's chemical weapons production equipment by November 1, the
first major deadline of a timetable set out by the Security Council.
Ban said Damascus has extended "consistent, constructive" support
to the mission but warned "the job is far from complete and much
important work remains to be done."
"Without sustained genuine commitment by the Syrian authorities, the joint mission will not fullfil its objectives," he said.
On the battlefield, Kurdish fighters advanced across the northeast
after seizing an Iraqi border post from jihadists over the weekend,
according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a Britain-based
group.
It said the Kurds had seized two villages in Hasakeh province and
surrounded a rebel brigade that is part of the Western-backed Free
Syrian Army, forcing it to surrender a tank, rocket launchers and
vehicle-mounted canons and heavy machine guns.
As the conflict has grown increasingly muddled, the Kurds have
fought both the army and other rebel groups in a bid to carve out an
autonomous zone modelled on the Kurdish region of Iraq.
Jihadists from the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant have
meanwhile sought control over the border to facilitate the flow of
fighters and arms, as it has launched attacks in both Iraq and Syria.
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