Lakhdar Brahimi, the UN-Arab League Special Envoy to Syria, expressed frustration with the deteriorating situation in Syria and the lack of UN Security Council action in remarks to reporters following his closed door briefing Friday morning to the Security Council.
Although Brahimi denied rumors that he had decided to resign his post, he quipped that "Every day I wake up I think I should resign. But I haven't so far. One day, perhaps, one day I will resign, and I assure you, you will find out."
Brahimi told reporters that he has gotten nowhere with the Syrians, referring to both the Assad regime and the Syrian opposition.
"On the Security Council, with the Americans and the Russians, we made some progress but it is too little," Brahimi said. "If they really believe that they are in charge of looking after peace and security, there is no time for them to lose to really take this question more seriously than they have until now."
Brahimi said that he offered a couple of additional ideas to the Security Council but would not go beyond saying that he does not favor any military intervention.
It is unclear how much confidence some members of the Security Council continue to have in Brahimi's ability to carry on with his work. His co-sponsor for the mission, the Arab League, decided several weeks ago to seat representatives of the Syrian National Coalition at the Arab League summit in Qatar in place of the Assad regime. This upset not only the Syrian regime, but also its main supporter on the Security Council, Russia, and called into question whether Brahimi should continue to represent the Arab League as a facilitator of negotiations in Syria as well as representing the United Nations.
When I asked Brahimi whether the Arab League's decision regarding its official recognition of the Syrian opposition was an impediment to his ability to serve as a neutral intermediary, he gave no direct answer but said that "everybody in the Arab League tell me it isn't."
The Security Council has been unable to do anything regarding the Syrian crisis other than issue occasional statements condemning terrorist acts, supporting the UN's humanitarian relief efforts and calling on both sides to cooperate with those humanitarian efforts. It won't be surprising if Lakhdar Brahimi wakes up one day soon and decides that it is indeed time to bail out. If so, he will be following in the footsteps of former UN Secretary General Kofi Annan who preceded Brahimi in his present post.
