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Brahimi's apology

UN envoy Lakhdar Brahimi's apology to the Syrian people should provide impetus for a solution to the Syrian crisis.
U.N.-Arab League envoy for Syria Lakhdar Brahimi arrives to address the media after a meeting at the Geneva Conference on Syria at the United Nations European headquarters in Geneva February 15, 2014. Brahimi said on Saturday the first two rounds of Syrian peace talks had not made much progress but said the two sides had agreed on an agenda for a third round at an unspecified date.    REUTERS/Denis Balibouse (SWITZERLAND - Tags: POLITICS CONFLICT) - RTX18VD5

It was a sad moment today, Feb. 15, when UN Special envoy Lakhdar Brahimi apologized to the Syrian people. While this apology constitutes a tacit condemnation of the costly and bloody deadlock in Syria, it does not and should not constitute a resignation or an abandonment of his mission; it asks both parties to reassess their respective intransigent positions. Equally relevant is the highlighting of the humanitarian tragedy as a crucial challenge to the two sponsoring powers: the United States and Russia.

Prompting Brahimi’s apology to the Syrian people was the “process” of both Geneva I and II, which constituted motion without movement — a precise description of the futility that characterized these so-called negotiations.

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