New Syria mediator hopes for Security Council support

Lakhdar Brahimi, a former Algerian foreign minister and longtime United Nations diplomat with a reputation as a strong-willed, independent broker, has agreed to replace former Secretary-General Kofi Annan as the new international mediator to Syria, the United Nations announced Friday.

In an exclusive interview with FRANCE 24, Brahimi said he was hoping to get support from the long-divided UN Security Council to resume international efforts for a diplomatic solution to the conflict in Syria.

“I’m going to go to New York to meet the Security Council. We are going to discuss very seriously how they can help (…) They are asking me to do this job, If they don’t support me, there is no job”, said Brahimi.

Brahimi is taking over from his former boss, Kofi Annan, who announced on August 3 that he would resign at the end of the month after a ceasefire he brokered failed to stop Syria descending into civil war.

“Kofi Annan is a friend and I have been in touch with him throughout his mediation… I don’t know whether I will succeed or whether I will fail like he did”, Brahimi told France 24.

The new Syria envoy claimed that his diplomatic experience would help him craft a new approach to solve the Syrian conflict.

“I’ll be meeting anybody who wants to talk with me, whether from the opposition or the government. The important point to remember here is the when I take a mission like this, I have only one preoccupation: how to serve the interests of the people of Syria.”