Ex-UN envoy: only ‘genuine commitment’ by neighbors can end Syria, Iraq wars

LONDON – It will take more than the ongoing bombing campaign to end the atrocities of the Islamic State (ISIS), said former UN envoy Lakhdar Brahimi, adding that a genuine commitment by neighboring countries is needed.

“A comprehensive resolution of the conflict is urgently needed,” Brahimi wrote in an opinion article published on Project Syndicate last Friday. “But this will be possible only if the main regional players – Iran, Jordan, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and Turkey – work with the international community to generate the political will to act.”

“Unfortunately, there are few signs that such cooperation will happen anytime soon,” he said.

Brahimi said he believes that the international community looked far too long as the Syrian civil war spiraled out of control and claimed the lives of more than 200,000 people and displaced more than 3 million, while admitting that his own efforts as the UN special envoy to Syria to bring all the warring parties to the negotiation also failed.

“The international community has been unable – and, to some extent, unwilling – to stop the war or end Syria’s suffering,” said the article on the website, which is dedicated to opinion articles by world leaders.

 “Former UN Secretary General Kofi Annan and I have had first-hand experience of the crisis. We both tried to bring the combatants to the negotiating table and end the killing. And we both failed,” Brahimi confessed.

In his article Brahimi, the former Algerian foreign minister and well-known international diplomat, suggested that the whole world must share the responsibility for failing to bring an end to the bloody conflict in Syria.

“The responsibility for our collective failure and inaction is not confined to international diplomats and policymakers; it is shared by all of us,” he wrote. “And yet too many people, confronted by such vast suffering, have become numb and apathetic.”

He went on to say that the inability of the international community to stop the war makes the plight of the Syrian people worse still and leads to despair.

“In a conflict as bitter, protracted, and complex as the war in Syria, it is all too easy to become overwhelmed by despair,” Brahimi wrote in the article that also touched on the tragic case of African migrants trying to cross the Mediterranean to Europe.

“It can be difficult for ordinary citizens to feel hopeful when governments and international institutions have been unable to stop the war and refuse to protect refugees,” Brahimi said.  “It is vital that, no matter how grim or upsetting the situation in Syria becomes, we do not tune it out or simply seek to turn the page,” he warned.