UN PEACE ENVOY BRAHIMI: SYRIA IS BEING DESTROYED BEFORE OUR EYES

Damascus, 19 Rabiul Awwal 1434/31 January 2013 (MINA) – The UN must unite to prevent Syria’s destruction, UN-Arab League special envoy Lakhdar Brahimi has warned. He made his statement hours after dozens of bodies of executed men were found in Aleppo in an area previously controlled by opposition groups.

Special envoy Brahimi urged the UN Security Council to act immediately, and to “clarify” the implementation of the Geneva Communiqué on Syria, as he believes the agreement is no longer plausible. Syria is “breaking up before everyone’s eyes,” Brahimi said, adding that only actions by the Security Council can improve conditions on the ground.

UN member-states must unite to push the Syrian government and the opposition to the negotiating table to seek a compromise, Brahimi said, according to Russia Today (RT) reports monitored by Mi’raj News Agency (MINA), Thursday.

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The Geneva Communiqué, which aimed to put an end to the Syrian conflict, can no longer be implemented due to “ambiguities” in the text, including the role of the Assad regime in a transitional government, Brahimi told the UN Security Council.

“I’m now calling on the Security Council to take action because the Geneva declaration that contains indeed a lot of elements that would provide for a reasonable solution to the conflict cannot be implemented as it is,” Brahimi told reporters after the UN session.

The Geneva Communiqué signed on June 30 – particularly the article that calls for the creation of a transitional Syrian government with full executive powers – should be “clarified” to say that the new body should share power within the country, he said.

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According to notes leaked from the closed-door briefing, Brahimi told the Security Council it was clear that “Assad should have no role in transition” as his “legitimacy has been irreparably damaged,” KUNA news agency reported.

Brahimi also warned of wider consequences for the region: “Syria is becoming a playground for competing forces. None of its neighbors are immune to the fallout from the conflict.”

Brahmi’s remarks came after a video was published on the Internet that reportedly showed the bodies of at least 65 executed men in the Syrian city of Aleppo.

The bodies, which were mostly men in their 20s or younger, were found on the banks of the Queig River in Aleppo’s rebel-held Bustan al-Qasr neighborhood. Each of them men had their hands tied and a gunshot wound to the head, and were laid out in a row with pools of blood under them.

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Opposition groups based in Aleppo told Reuters the young men had been killed by members of a pro-Assad militia and then dumped into the river. The Syrian opposition, which published the video, claimed the bodies had floated down the river into the rebel-held area. (T/P-08/E1)

Mi’raj News Agency (MINA)