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.