U.N. envoy to Syria resigns as truce falters
For more than a year and a half, Lakhdar Brahimi was at the front lines of talks between the two sides of Syria's civil war. As the U.N.-Arab League special envoy to Syria, he doggedly pursued a political solution to the crisis, with little to show for it. And now, Brahimi is resigning from his post, U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said Tuesday, according to CNN.
Ban accepted the envoy's resignation "with great regret," he said, standing by Brahimi's side at U.N. Headquarters in New York.
The resignation is effective May 31.
The announcement came as a truce between Syrian rebels and the government showed signs of faltering. Rebels in Aleppo on Tuesday fired upon pro-government enclaves in that town in retaliation for Syrian troops earlier firing upon the opposition in Homs, according to the rebels and an opposition group.
Brahimi had been apologetic before for the failure of peace talks but remained a highly regarded mediator.
"The resignation of Lakhdar Brahimi is further proof of the failure of international efforts to end the horrific bloodshed in Syria," said Andy Baker, region program manager for Oxfam on the Syrian crisis. "Perhaps it's no coincidence that the peace envoy to Syria should step down when the prospect for a peaceful resolution seems as distant as ever."